


Road Work Ahead (Uh Yeah I Sure Hope It Does)

by Flameo_Hotman



Series: Zukka Week [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: 5+1, 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Blood and Injury, Brief transphobia, Car Accidents, Childhood Trauma, College AU///5+1, Drinking, FTM Zuko, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Flashbacks, Gore, Gun Violence, Half Deaf Zuko, Hangover, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, I am so sorry, I make the rules, Iroh is a Good Uncle (Avatar), Kidnapping, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Minor Character Death, Misgendering, Misunderstandings, NSFW, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Panic Attack, Party, Praise Kink, Secretly Dating, Soulmarks, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Suki's moms are Kyoshi and Rangi, Swords///Fake Dating, Tea or Coffee Shop///Friends to Lovers, This wasn't meant to happen, Torture, Trans Male Character, Trans Zuko, Trauma, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Weed, Zhao (Avatar) Is An Asshole, Zukka Week, Zukka Week 2021, Zuko goes to therapy, and he was right to do so, as always, avatar yangchen is the pope, but its for a moment and then is briefly mentioned again, collage AU, creepy dudes at the bar, dead naming, disability or chronic pain centric///hurt/comfort, jee is a good uncle, mutilation of a corpse, southern water tribe///secretly dating, tattoos///soulmates, the never ending chapter was defeated after two days, uncle iroh started a war, zhao dies, zhao is fucked up, zhao is transphobic, zukka - Freeform, zuko has a praise kink, zuko has hearing aids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-22 12:41:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30038850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flameo_Hotman/pseuds/Flameo_Hotman
Summary: Sokka went to Ba Sing Se to go to school at the university, but what he never expected was meeting Zuko and falling in love. But only one problem... Sokka found his soulmate and doesn't know who they might be. So now he has to face a question he never thought he would have to confront.His soulmate is out there somewhere in the city, but Zuko is right here. He knows the road he should choose, but that doesn't mean his heart wants the same thing.Road work ahead? Sokka sure hopes it does...Beta read by H_Faith_Marr
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zukka Week [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1614751
Comments: 92
Kudos: 89





	1. Swords///Fake Dating

**Author's Note:**

> Written in one week for Zukkka Week 2021. Just like last year I have taken all the prompts and worked them into one fic because I like a challenge. Enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my beta reader H_Faith_Marr  
> Updated as of 3/16/2021

Iced coffee on a hot summer morning was by far the best way to start the day, and the Jasmine Dragon was by far the best place in the city to get that iced coffee. Sokka would not be convinced otherwise.

The cafe was one of the first places he had gone after moving in with Toph and Suki a week ago, and he had gone almost every morning since then. And this morning was no different.

He did miss the coffee shops back home, but Ba Sing Se University had The Mechanist and Sokka wanted to learn engineering from the guy. So here he was. Though this summer would have been spent in Ba Sing Se regardless, as he was helping Paindao with a sword training camp starting today.

Well… That was if the traffic started moving sometime soon.

At least the coffee made it more bearable.

And twenty minutes later found Sokka walking into the lobby of the 41st Street Swords.

The interior was sparsely decorated but well lit. A weapons rack held the training swords that the kids would be using sat next to a stack of mats and body pads. Not far from those stood two older men, one of which he knew to be Piandao.

Sokka walked over to greet them, smiling as Piandao noticed him.

“Ah, Sokka! Good to see you again. This is Jeong-Jeong. The friend that needed my help with this swords camp, I told you about him on the phone,” the swords master cheered, clapping Sokka on the back and gesturing to the other male. “Jeong-Jeong this is Sokka! One of the best students that I have ever had the honor of training.”

Sokka preened under the praise, before turning to Jeong-Jeong and bowing, saying, “Master Piandao spoke highly of you Master Jeong-Jeong. I am honored to help with your camp this summer.”

Jeong-Jeong gave a bow in return, replying, “The honor is all mine, Sokka. Piandao has told me much about your skill. The sign-in sheet is over at the front desk. After that meet us back over here and we will wait for the other summer instructors to arrive.”

So over to the front desk, he went.

He signed the sheet and as the man at the desk handed him a camp instructor shirt, the bell to the front door chimed and the heat from outside came beating in for a moment.

Sokka accepted the shirt and stepped away from the desk, and after slipping the purple t-shirt on over his tank top, he saw who it was that had just walked into the studio.

He felt his breath catch for a moment at the sight.

Black sweatpants and a camp t-shirt had never looked this good.

Long dark hair and oversized sunglasses hid the guy’s face as he accepted the pen from the man at the front desk and jotted his name down right below Sokka’s on the sign-in sheet. And Sokka couldn't help but glance at the man’s hands as he signed the paper.

He had the same calluses on his hands that Sokka had developed from years of training with swords, but aside from that, they were smooth and blank. He followed one of those hands with his eyes as the guy took off his sunglasses, and he revealed the sight of a large burn scar.

It looked old.

Golden eyes met his blue, and suddenly Sokka realized he had been staring.

_ Fuck. _

The man’s eyes flicked down to the instructor shirt Sokka was wearing and then back to his face with an indifferent glare before his unsacred cheek flushed with what Sokka could only assume was rage.  _ Staring is rude! Why was he still staring?!? _

“Can I help you with something?” the too beautiful man asked, voice raspy like smoke.

His stomach felt like it was tied up in knots, as he answered, “Uh… Not really? I just really like the way your hair looks. Cause it looks all soft and shiny? My name’s Sokka.”

When he offered his hand, the man glanced down at it. But instead of accepting it, the man drew back a step almost as though repulsed by the prospect of the handshake.

_ That was more than a little rude. _

But then again, Sokka may have started it by staring at the guy, so he didn’t feel too put out by the rejection.

The man, however, did respond to Sokka’s introduction, saying, “Uh… Thanks? I’m Zuko?”

But before Sokka could press the conversation further Piandao was calling them over as the last few instructors began trickling in the building. The relief that flashed over Zuko’s face left a sour feeling in Sokka’s gut, and he decided that sometimes pretty boys were only pretty on the outside.

_ He probably pissed off whoever gave him that scar. _

Though watching the curve of Zuko’s ass as the man walked away did make up for the unpleasant interaction, even if said ass was mostly obscured by the oversized camp t-shirt Zuko wore. However, this time, Sokka made sure not to stare before he followed Zuko over to where Jeong-Jeong and Piandao stood.

“It seems like the two of you have had the chance to introduce yourselves to each other, so that saves me the effort of doing so,” Piandao began, smiling at them warmly. “The two of you will be in charge of the beginner’s group. I wouldn’t trust the task to anyone else.”

_ Well, that was just great, now wasn’t it… _

Sokka forced a smile to his face, the sour feeling returning to his stomach like his boomerang. He wasn’t looking forward to the camp quite as much anymore.

Cut to an hour later, and the parents were showing up to drop their kids off. And the instructors had all claimed their spots in the park across the street for the camp.

A couple, their age, had dropped off a kid who would only answer to The Duke, who Sokka had to retrieve from the trees more than once already. So he was anxious to start the lesson. He could only hope that once they put a practice sword in the kid’s hands, he wouldn’t have to worry about getting The Duke and the sword out of any more trees. At least for the first day anyways.

Sokka sighed, wishing that the kid’s parents had decided to hang around and watch the lesson like a few of the parents had, but soon enough, the rest of their group had arrived, and they could start with the warm-up stretches.

The look Zuko gave him when Sokka started leading them through the stretches told him everything he needed to know about what teaching with Zuko was going to be like. This was going to be a fight to see who was actually going to be leading the lessons.

Next time The Duke climbed up one of the trees, Zuko was going to be the one to get the kid back down.

Thankfully once they did get the foam practice swords handed out, Zuko did keep a close eye on the energetic kid. The first day was focused on form, so there was a good chance that the kid would have bolted up a tree since it was just a bunch of standing around holding a sword and trying to commit the stance to muscle memory.

Sure enough, about fifteen minutes into Zuko and Sokka walking around and correcting forms, The Duke made for one of the trees like some sort of squirrel spotting an acorn that needed storing for the winter.

Zuko caught him before The Duke was even halfway to the tree and returned him to the group.

“Sokka, can you handle the rest of the kids, while I deal with The Duke?”

“Uh? Yeah, I guess?” Sokka answered as Zuko focused on their flight risk.

“IT'S BORING!” The Duke groaned, as he settled back into first position.

But Zuko answered, sinking into the same position, “I bet you can’t hold the position as long as I can. You want to prove me wrong?”

The determined spark in The Duke’s eyes proved Zuko had found the perfect way to keep the demon child out of the trees and on the ground. Sokka breathed a sigh of relief. That was one less thing to worry about. Now he just had to worry about Lee’s horrible grip on the sword he was holding.

No one but The Duke was happy by the time they broke for lunch.

Though when The Duke failed to convince any of his new friends to climb one of the trees with him for lunch, that mood too deflated and resulted in the kid staying earthbound for the meal.

Zuko sat with Sokka and was asking him how the others had done when one of the other instructors came over to check in on them.

“How is it with the kiddie group?” Jet laughed, as he clapped the two of them on the shoulder, only for Zuko to smack the hand away with his chopsticks before it could make contact. Jet gave a chuckle but didn’t make to touch Zuko again. “Touchy, ain’t yah. But I’m really just checking on how The Duke did. I’m his uncle.”

“He did good,” Zuko answered, glancing at Jet’s hands before returning to his food, after spotting the dark green tattoo on the palm of Jet’s hand.

Sokka figured Jet was looking for a little more information than that though, so he tacked on adding, “He did keep trying to climb the trees until Zuko got him to focus.”

“The Duke focused? Now that is a miracle!” Jet praised before he headed over to check in with The Duke for a brief chat. Then he left them to return to whichever group he was teaching.

The second half of the day, they actually taught the kids a few different sword moves before Zuko led their group through their cool-down stretches, which finished up just in time for parents to start showing up to collect the kids.

But when none of the kids went to meet one of the assumed parents who had been watching the lesson, Sokka felt a cold squirming in his gut. The man met his eyes and turned to walk away.

Sokka began to step forward, intent on telling the creep off, but Zuko, oblivious to the man, stopped him asking for help carrying the barrels of practice swords back inside. And when Sokka looked back, the man was gone.

Once they had finished cleaning up, Sokka dropped by Jeong-Jeong’s office to let him know about the creep. He couldn’t just not tell someone, just in case the guy tried taking one of the kids.

“What did the man look like?”

Sokka answered Jeong-Jeong saying, “Average height, muscular build, dark grey hair.”

“I will let the other instructors know to keep an eye out for him. Thank you for letting me know.” The man thanked him before dismissing Sokka to go talk to Piandao. The coil of worry in Sokka’s gut relaxed, and he headed back out to go find his car to drive home.

A quick text to the family group chat to let them know the camp’s first day had gone well, and Sokka hit the road.

No one was home when he arrived, Suki likely being at work already and Toph likely still at wrestling practice, so after a cool shower, Sokka decided to go say hi to Suki while she was at work. Then he would see where the evening took him.

Club Warrior was exactly as Suki had described it, yet somehow still more impressive than he had expected. Suki was right; her moms ran a tight ship. The club was spotless, despite the already sizable crowd already gathered this early in the evening.

He weaved between the early evening crowd and made his way to the bar, where he spotted Suki in her uniform and makeup.

“Suki!” Sokka cheered as he threw himself down into the bar stool.

She glanced over at him with a warm smile before she finished serving the patron she was currently with. And then she grabbed him a cactus juice that she set down in front of him, with a, “So how was Jeong-Jeong’s camp?”

“It was fine, but it would have been more fun if you were there. I got paired with this rude jerk who is unfortunately attractive and actually good with swords. So other than him being kind of rude, I don’t really have anything bad to say about him.”

Suki shook her head, “Of course you would get paired with a hot jerk. Does he at least have a cute butt?”

“It is so unfairly cute, but it might be my fault we got off on a bad foot because I was staring at him, and he noticed,” Sokka groaned, burying his face in his arms.

But Suki wasn’t able to stay around to chat, as another customer sat down a few seats down from Sokka, and Suki rushed off to take their drink order.

Sokka picked up his glass and turned to look at the dance floor that was starting to fill up when he caught the sight of Zuko walking in and being intercepted halfway to the bar.

If Sokka had thought Zuko looked divine dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, he looked downright sinful in the tight jeans and leather jacket he now wore.  _ Figures that someone that hot would wear leather in the middle of the summer. _

But Zuko didn’t seem like he was enjoying whatever the guy who had stopped him was saying, and when the guy went to stroke his arm, Zuko reeled back, and Sokka found himself on his feet and rushing over to intervene.

“Babe! You’re finally here!” Sokka cheered as he stepped between Zuko and the man before holding the cactus juice out to Zuko. “I already grabbed you your drink.”

Zuko looked both relieved and annoyed, but he accepted the drink, with care to avoid touching the hand holding the glass out to him, and rolled with it, saying, “Yeah, traffic sucked getting here.”

And then Sokka glanced back at the guy and asked, “Is this guy bothering you, Zuko?”

“Chan was just leaving, weren’t you, Chan?”

Chan looked upset but left them without a word to sit with a group of other men.

“I could have handled him, Sokka.”

_ So much for thank you. _

Sokka shrugged, “Yeah, but this was faster. If you want, you can join me over at the bar.”

Zuko looked thoughtful for a moment before holding the drink back out to Sokka, saying, “Uh, sure, and here is your drink back.”

“Nah, I’m friends with the owners’ daughter, so I get to drink for free. You can keep the drink.” He answered before leading Zuko over to the bar.

Almost as soon as they had sat down at the bar, the man Sokka had reported to Jeong-Jeong walked in to go sit down at a table in the corner of the club, and the coil of worry went tight again. But he didn’t want to worry Zuko, so when Suki walked over to them, he just ordered another drink.

Talking with Zuko was easier than he had thought it would be, and Sokka found himself realizing he may have misjudged the guy. Zuko was actually pretty fun to hang out with, and he seemed to like his jokes. And he found himself actually looking forward to seeing him again in the morning at the camp.

But sooner than he expected, the closing time had come, and their drinks remained primarily untouched. Their thirst having been better quenched by their conversation than the alcohol. However, when Zuko got up to leave, Sokka noticed that Chan and Chan’s friends also got up.

Yeah, no, that wasn’t going to happen, so Sokka got up and walked out with Zuko, whispering, “Chan and his friends look like they are planning some trouble, so I’ll walk you to your car.”

Zuko glanced over Sokka’s shoulder and sighed, “I don’t drive. I got a ride here, from one of my uncles.”

“I can give you a lift home then,” Sokka decided as they stepped out into the parking lot. “The blue truck over there is mine. You can give me the address once we are inside.”

Zuko gave a nod and followed him to the truck, hopping in when Sokka unlocked it. But as Sokka got in the driver’s side, he noticed the man from the park stepping out behind Chan and his friends.

He made eye contact as he closed the door and shoved the key into the ignition.

He was going to have to tell his dad about this... If the man hadn’t been watching the kids, then he may have been watching Sokka. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried to kidnap him. He was the son of one of the Southern Water Tribe Chief, after all.

“I think we are being followed, so I’m going to lose our tail first, and then I can take you to your place.” Sokka signed as he pulled out of the parking lot and started driving in the direction of the nearest police station.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, he noticed a black car following them.

Zuko glanced up at the review mirror before pulling out his phone and texting someone. Then he put the phone away and rattled off an address to Sokka.

Three left turns and a mile of backtracking later, and the black car had vanished. Fifteen minutes later, on the highway and Sokka was pulling up in the driveway of a nice looking two story house.

Zuko hopped out of the truck, saying, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sokka.” with a small smile, and Sokka was alone in the vehicle. He watched Zuko pull out a set of keys, and a moment later, Zuko was stepping inside the house and closing the door behind him, with another smile directed at Sokka.

Sokka decided that he liked Zuko as he drove home.

The creep was back and watching them the next day.

During lunch, Zuko finally picked up on Sokka’s anxiety.

“You okay?”

Sokka startled out of his staring and glanced at Zuko before looking back at the creep, saying, “That guy isn’t one of the parents, and he was also watching us at the bar last night.”

Zuko glanced over at the creep before he snorted, saying, “Sokka, that’s my Uncle Jee. He is keeping an eye on me for my other uncle while I’m in Ba Sing Se. He was the guy in the car that was following us last night. I texted him that I was fine, and you thought he was those guys from the bar. He says sorry for freaking you out, though.”

Was Sokka embarrassed? Yes, but he was more relieved to know he had read the situation wrong. The guy wasn’t a creep or planning to kidnap someone. He was just looking out for his nephew.

He couldn’t help but laugh at himself as the relief washed over him, and after the camp finished for the day, he made sure to let Jeong-Jeong know his mistake.

Two weeks later, they were finishing up the camp’s final lesson, and Sokka found himself sad that it was over. He had grown to enjoy Zuko’s company. But if he had any luck, he would keep running into Zuko at Club Warrior. They still had to stage the next arc in their “relationship” to annoy Chan. Something that the two of them were having a little too much fun with.

The face Chan would make when they pretended that Zuko was leaving Sokka to date Suki would be priceless.

But before they could do that, they had to make the last day of the camp fun for the kids.

“Alright, team up and battle royal time.” Sokka cheered to the kids, only for The Duke and Lee to cackle and rush them with their foam swords.

Yeah, so maybe he should have added that he meant for the kids to fight each other, but them vs the kids sounded like it would be more fun. So he and Zuko rolled with it.

They held back and let the kids feel like they were winning because they were kids after all, and Sokka wasn’t about to ruin the fun for them.

“Remember those are two halves of the same sword, Lee!” Zuko shouted as Lee swung one of his form dao at him. Sokka dodged and backed up towards Zuko, who had turned away from him to parry a blow from The Duke.

Sokka called out, “Good form, The Duke!”

Zuko stepped back, and the kids began circling them and praised, “Smart maneuver, class! Overpowering your opponents with superior numbers!”

Lee swung both dao at him, and Sokka jumped back, colliding with Zuko, now standing back to back, as their students shrieked with laughter as they descended on their instructors, who conceded their defeat to the kids.

A quick glance at the nearest groups revealed that their students were not the only ones to get the idea to gang up on their instructors. They couldn’t help but join in the shrieks of laughter from their students.

Everyone was in good cheer as they cleaned up.

Jet came over to the two of them as they were putting away the last of the practice swords, saying, “I’m throwing a party for all of the camp instructors. So if the two you decide to come bring some friends with you. The more, the merrier.”

Sokka glanced at Zuko, who seemed unsure, and he answered for the both of them, wanting the opportunity to get his new friend’s phone number, “Yeah, we’ll be there. Just let me know where and when.”

Which is how he found himself dancing with Zuko three hours later

The living room was crowded, and people were bumping into them, but at that moment, Sokka didn’t care. All he cared about was how Zuko radiated joy and the way the dim lights of the party shined in those gold eyes and the way the shadows seemed to caress Zuko’s beautiful face like a prayer of supplication from a starving man.

And Sokka wished to be those shadows that kissed against his friend’s lips, as Zuko draped his arms around Sokka’s shoulders and leaned against him.

But the moment was broken when someone stumbled and bumped Sokka in the back, sending Sokka off-center, only for Zuko to stop the two of them from falling.

Zuko giggled, “Maybe we should switch to water, Sokka.”

“Yeah, we probably should.” Sokka not really processing what had been said.

Someone slapped him on the back saying something about him finding a good catch, but Sokka didn’t pay them any attention.

He wanted to kiss Zuko, but in the end, all he got was his number and a hangover.


	2. Tattoos///Soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hangover PSA chapter that I won't apologize for. More on that in the author's notes.  
> Thank you to my beta reader H_Faith_Marr  
> Updated as of 3/16/2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is annoyed by how long I go on about Sokka's hangover in this chapter, I do not say sorry. In most fanfiction I have seen, if not all, wherever drinking is concerned it is depicted in a rather casual manner, and very rarely does the negative effects get talked about in the fic. I doubt I have ever read a realistic hangover in fanfiction or even a published novel. A hangover is more than just a headache the day after drinking. And as a recovering alcoholic, I do not want to put the idea that drinking is a fun casual thing with no downsides in front of people who either haven't yet started drinking or have just started drinking.
> 
> If you are going to drink, please do so responsibly and if you are not old enough to legally drink (and this is gonna feel like being lectured I know) just don't drink.
> 
> I started drinking during my freshman year of high school and I built some really unhealthy drinking habits and quitting was and is extremely hard. And well yes I am sober now, I still struggle and did have a relapse not all that long ago. I don't want anyone else going through what I put myself through. This is why I tend to take this topic so seriously.
> 
> And as for the depiction of pot use in this chapter, it does work to help with some of the hangover stuff, but it does not cure the hangover. AND HANGOVERS CAN LAST FOR MULTIPLE DAYS depending on how much you drink. Back when I was starting to get worse with my drinking I would have hangovers that lasted around a week.
> 
> As for weed, I only use it medically, mainly out of fear that the way I tend to be with addiction, but I won't shame anyone for using it recreationally because just like with booze it can be done responsibly. But if you are smoking or drinking to cope with something it would be a good idea to think about if there is a better way to cope. (Personally, weed is the best way for me to cope with my chronic pain, so I feel safe saying that I don't need to look for an alternative. But my drinking was because I only loved myself when I was drunk and that is not a healthy coping method. So I have been working on loving myself when I am sober.)
> 
> I am not here to demonize drinking. I just want to make sure that if someone is going to drink they do so responsibly.
> 
> So with the PSA done, please enjoy this chapter.

The next morning Sokka felt like shit.

His head throbbed from dehydration and his stomach felt like someone had taken scotch brite to it instead of actual scotch. Zuko was right he should have switched to water at some point last night.

He stayed laying in bed for a few more minutes, before he felt his back pocket buzz, and he fished out his phone to silence the alarm that felt more like a jack hammer drilling into his brain rather than a wake up call. Sokka didn’t want to get up. Not when he felt like if he moved a muscle he would hurl.

But he hadn’t made sure to close his blinds the night before so a half hour later when the sun was high enough in the sky to come seeping into the room like liquid poison stabbing his eyes, Sokka groaned and finally, slowly, dragged himself out of bed.

He glared bleary-eyed at the hateful sunlight filling the room, before yanking the curtains closed and heading back to his bed to sit down.

A brief moment of digging through his nightstand and he found his pipe and grinder. Sure smoking a bowl of weed wouldn’t cure him of the hangover, but it sure as hell would help to make it more bearable.

Sokka loaded up the pipe with the weed he had sitting in the ginder, making a mental note to grind up another nugget, and then fished his lighter out from the drawer to take a hit. His lungs burned for a moment as he held the smoke in them, but then as he released it he let out a happy sigh. And a few minutes later, once the weed pipe held a bowl of ash, he dumped the ashes into an ashtray as a soft floaty feeling overtook him.

Sleeping in last night’s clothes left him feeling gross, so after putting away his stuff, Sokka got up and headed into his ensuite bathroom for a quick shower. And the water felt amazing as he just stood there under the spray for several minutes before finally grabbing his shampoo and actually getting fresh and clean.

His stomach was still twisted up in knots from the hangover, as he toweled off and slipped on a clean pair of sweatpants. Sokka decided to leave his hair down for the day, so it could act as a natural barrier against the sun.

Now sufficiently dried off and no longer pantsless, Sokka headed off to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast.

And it was while he was quietly cooking an overly greasy breakfast in the dark, that Suki walked in and gasped.

Sokka had already made a habit of cooking breakfast shirtless, so he couldn’t quite say what had caused her shock, but he did turn to look over his shoulder at her and raise an eyebrow in question.

“You met your soulmate and didn’t tell me?”

_ What… _

Sokka blinked in confusion for a few moments, but when she didn’t drop the act and tell him it was a joke, he turned off the stove and managed, “Not that I know of… Why did you ask?”

“Your soul mark tattoo is colored in… Sokka, please tell me you actually know who your soulmate is and are hungover because you were celebrating, and not because you got so drunk you didn’t realize you had met your soulmate.”

Sokka felt his stomach give an unpleasant twist, which did not help the nauseous feeling that being hungover had left him with, as he thought back to last night at the party.

At least a few people had come into contact with where the tattoo laid on his back, and he hadn’t even stopped them to check to see what they looked like, let alone stop them to check to see if the contact had colored their marks as well…

_ Oh sweet actual fuck…  _ He had bumped into his soulmate at Jet’s party last night and he had been too focused on Zuko and the rapidly developing crush he had on the guy to bother doing the one thing everyone was taught from the time they could talk.

If your tattoo hasn’t colored yet always  _ always _ **always** check to see if the new person you met colored when you made physical contact.

Sure as a kid he and the other kids had gone around touching their marks to each other hoping to color their marks, but his mark hadn’t colored the entire time he had been living in the Southern Water Tribe. He had known going to Ba Sing Se he might meet his soulmate and the first week or so he had checked every time he got home to see if the wolf and dragon tattoo had colored, but when it hadn’t, he stopped checking. Telling himself that he would only bother checking if someone touched his back.

But then he had gone and not actually checked last night and now he didn’t know who his soulmate was despite meeting them sometime last night.

A sudden and rather welcomed thought was that he and Zuko had been hanging off of each other most of last night before going their separate ways, so there was every chance that his soulmate might be Zuko. But… He didn’t actually know if the guy’s mark had colored or not. Let alone where Zuko’s mark might be or even look like.

“Uh… Let me go text someone real fast.”

And with that he flead to his room to retrieve his phone and panic text Zuko.

**Boomerang Guy:** Hey weird question

**Boomerang Guy:** Have you met your soulmate

For a moment there was no reply, until his phone chimed and Zuko’s reply came through.

**Unknown Number:** Ummmmm no why

Sokka felt his heart sink into his throat, but he answered.

**Boomerang Guy:** I think I met mine at the party last night but I didn’t realize it until this morning when my roommate pointed out that my mark colored

**Boomerang Guy:** And I have no idea who I colored with

**Unknown Number:** That’s rough buddy

**Unknown Number:** Any idea if Jet has a list of people from the party? If he does then you might be able to look up the people who were there and find out which one of them also colored last night

**Boomerang Guy:** Good idea

**Boomerang Guy:** Ill shoot him a quick text

Sokka backed out of the texts from Zuko and then pulled up the text Jet had sent him about the party and shot off a quick text, already knowing that the guy wouldn’t be awake for another couple of hours. The party had been at Jet’s place so Jet hadn’t needed to worry about how he was going to get home or if he would be too drunk for the uber to let him ride after all.

Though if Sokka felt this miserable from his hangover, he didn’t want to imagine how much worse Jet’s might be.

Then Sokka slipped his phone into his pocket and rushed into the bathroom to check his back in the mirror.

The wolf and dragon that had always been undisturbed balck ink on the middle of his back had filled in with a brilliant gold.

The golden ink made Sokka think of Zuko’s hauntingly beautiful eyes, but he quickly dismissed that thought from his mind. He needed to find his soulmate because when you found yours you were meant to be together. That was just how things worked.

Finding your soulmate was meant to be a happy affair. The meeting of two souls leaving a piece of themselves inked into the other’s sink, but all Sokka felt was sick. And he wasn’t sure how much of that was from having met and missed his soulmate or the hangover.

Certainly it had nothing to deal with the sickness he felt in his heart.

He couldn’t bare the sight of the tattoo for a moment longer, so he snatched his shirt from last night off the floor and tucked it on over his head to hide the mark.

He took a few steadying breaths, and then he headed back into the kitchen to finish cooking breakfast. There was nothing he could do about the soul mark tattoo until Jet texted back with the list of guests.

Sokka could deal with this later, but he needed food now.

By time he reached the kitchen Suki had already finished cooking the food he had left on the stove and was plating it for him.

“Have I ever told you that you are the best ex-girlfriend ever?”

Suki smiled and laughed, “Yep, almost everyday.”

“Well you are.” Sokka replied as he sat down at the counter to dig into the food.

And it was then that Suki asked the dreaded question, “So the person you texted… Were they?”

“No, but I also sent Jet a text asking who all was at the party, so hopefully that pans out.” Sokka sighed.

“Sokka! You went to a party and didn’t take me with you?” Toph asked, as she walked into the room and plopping down on the chair next to him.

Sokka pretended that he didn’t see her stealing some of the food from his plate, before answering, “Sorry, Toph, there was drinking and you’re still not old enough to drink.”

“So what’s with the weird vibe?” the tiny but deadly powerhouse asked.

Sokka chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment, but even if Toph couldn’t see the tattoo, he didn’t think he would be able to hide the truth from her.

“I met my soulmate while drunk and I didn’t realize it until this morning.”

Toph grimace, “That sucks, dude. This is why I’m happy I don’t have a soulmate. I don’t have to deal with those what ifs. Well, that and I don’t want one in the first place.”

Sokka found Toph’s response comforting, even if she was right that the situation did suck.

Toph continued, saying, “My parents still don’t understand that though. They sent me another text asking me if I have found a boyfriend yet. I wish they would just accept that I’m aro ace and don’t want that. Not everyone wants that kind of relationship. It’s like they think I can’t be happy if I am single…”

“Yeah, but your parents are jerks, so I wouldn’t listen to what they say.” Sokka replied with a warm smile. “What matters is that you are happy just the way you are.

Toph gave a small nod, but she pressed on, “Doesn’t mean I don’t wish they accepted me for me… And it doesn’t help that the world tends to agree with them. Even if the world and my parents are wrong about how I should live my life.” But then she perked up and added, “But if you don’t find your soulmate, we could just pretend that I’m your soulmate and we can get best friend married.”

Sokka snored with laughter, before answering, “Sounds great! Courthouse wedding if I can’t find my soulmate?”

“Deal, Snoozles!”

Suki rubbed at the black rose on the tip of her finger, but she watched her friends talk with a warm smile, before she grabbed the empty plate and set it next to the sink.

Sokka felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and when he checked it there was a message from Jet.

**Mouthwheat:** Sorry man lots of folks brought guests with them maybe check insta and see who was tagged at the party

Sokka sighed and put his phone away.

This was going to be a lot harder than he thought it would. And while he might have not ended up texting his dad about Jee, he was going to need to tell him about this…

He just needed a few days to figure out what to say.

“Let’s go get some coffee.”

There was nothing better on a hot day than iced coffee. And the heat was only held at bay by the air conditioner in the mansion that Toph had set the three of them up in.

The last thing he expected to see when he walked into the Jasmine Dragon was Zuko equally hungover at a table with three women.

And maybe there was something better than iced coffee on a hot day because the way he felt with those golden eyes looking at him was like nothing he had ever felt.

Call it a dream but he wished the gold on his back belonged to Zuko.


	3. Tea or Coffee Shop///Friends to Lovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be beta read and updated

Zuko gave him a tight, pain-filled smile that did nothing to belie the man’s own hangover, and the woman who sat next to him glanced between Zuko and Sokka for a moment. She looked like she could be a slightly younger, female version of Zuko, so Sokka could only assume she was the little sister that Zuko had mentioned to him a few days before.

Her smile reminded him of a satisfied owl-cat who’d caught the parakeet-mouse. But when she looked back to Zuko and whispered something to him, she seemed to turn soft for a brief moment.

Yep, that was Zuko’s sister, Azula.

Zuko looked away from him to Azula and gave a nod.

Azula smiled at Sokka again with that same smile as before and intoned, “So you’re the Sokka Zuzu has been telling me about. Sit with us, and I can go get you and your friends something to drink.”

Her tone wasn’t a request but an order. So after glancing at Suki, who shrugged, Sokka went to sit down next to Zuko. Toph followed them over to the table and sat in the set next to the one that Azula had just vacated, before leaning her cane against the table, and Suki went to sit down next to a girl dressed in pink.

That must be Ty Lee which meant that the gothic woman next to Ty Lee must be Mai. Zuko’s ex-girlfriend. Zuko had told him about the two girls as well. He had dated the girl for a few weeks towards the end of his summer break prior to high school, but when school had started back up Mai had met Ty Lee and the girls had found out that they were soulmates.

Zuko had been a little sad about it, but he was happy for the two and had accepted it.

Sokka glanced over at the counter where Azula was now talking with the barista and then back at Zuko, who was once again resting his head on the table they sat at.

Zuko mumbled, “Don’t worry, she gets a good read on people, so she won’t order something you wouldn’t like.”

A moment later and Azula was sitting back down between Zuko and Toph, saying, “My name is Azula. Those two are Ty Lee and Azula. Now I know who Sokka is, but what are your names?”

Toph was more than happy to introduce herself and mention her wrestling career. And then Suki introduced herself.

Ty Lee looked delighted and squealed, “Wow! Your hair looks so soft!” And then she reached out and petted it for a few moments.

But the moment that her hand touched Suki’s hair a beautiful pink rose just like the rose tattoo just like the small and yet still black tattoo on the tip of her finger.

Everyone froze for a moment, but then Ty Lee looked down at the light green leaves on the dark red rose tattoo on the palm of the hand she had touched Suki’s hair with. A moment later she looked at Mai and looked ecstatic.

Mai glanced down at Suki’s hands and saw the still black tattoo, and then she slowly reached out and brushed the tips of her fingers against it. And the tattoo was colored with a beautiful dark red that matched the red of the rose on the palm of the hand that Ty Lee had used to touch Suki’s hair.

The three women were silent for a moment before Mai gave a small smile looking at the pink rose on the top side of her hand and the mint green one on the tip of her finger on that very same hand.

Ty Lee squealed, “I have two gorgeous soulmates!”

“And so do I…” Mai said with that same soft smile, as Suki flushed pink as the rose in her hair.

Suki then looked over at Sokka and said with a big smile, “I guess I’m like your parents.”

Sokka did his best to quell the jealousy that she had not only found her soulmates but that she also knew who aid soulmates were. Yes, he was happy for her, but that was marred by the bitter undercurrent of wishing for what she had found.

“Let’s give the lovebirds some privacy, so they can get to know each other,” Sokka suggested, partly to do just what he had suggested and party to give himself some space to deal with the warring emotions inside of him.

Zuko sat up and gave a nod, before following Sokka over to another table, while Toph grabbed her cane and went with Azula over to the counter to grab their drinks.

When they sat down, Zuko asked curiously, “What did Suki mean by she is like your parents?”

“Oh, she was talking about how I had three parents. My mom had two soulmates, just like Suki. My dad and my pops. They met when they were way younger though. But they did grow up in the same town, so no surprise there.” Sokka answered. It was a story that he had heard a lot when he was a kid.

The three of them had met when they were kids and they learned pretty fast that they were soulmates. But that was pretty standard and it wasn’t until they were a lot older that they actually started dating.

Zuko looked from Sokka and then at the coffee in front of him. He looked thoughtful.

But his question surprised Sokka.

“Did they love each other?”

It took Sokka a moment to respond because the question had been so strange, but he did answer, saying, “Well… Yeah, they were soulmates?”

“Soulmates don’t always love each other though.” came Zuko's answer. And that answer belied something of the life that Zuko had seen. And while that answer piqued Sokka’s curiosity, he didn’t think it would be wise to ask what Zuko meant by that.

Sokka frowned for a moment, a confusion stirring in his gut much like worry tightening like a coil, but he felt the need to reassure Zuko and so he did, “They loved each other with that kind of love that everyone wants to be loved with. I guess that’s why I’m so upset about not knowing who my soulmate is because I want that same love.”

Zuko opened his mouth to say something, but before a word could leave his mouth Toph and Azula arrived at their table and were sitting down. Azula placed an iced coffee down in front of Sokka before Toph leaned her cane against his shoulder.

Whatever Zuko had been about to say went unsaid, as he decided to take a sip of his own drink, just like Sokka did his own, and Zuko had been right. Azula did have a good read on people and Sokka found that the iced coffee was the same one that he had ordered each time he had come to the Jasmine Dragon.

It wasn’t much longer before Zuko and his sister needed to leave.

So after a few short goodbyes and a quick promise from Zuko that he would text Sokka later, the two left to go home.

Sokka glanced over at the table that Suki sat with her two soulmates and he smiled. The bitter jealous subsiding at the sight of her easy smile as she laughed with Mai and Ty Lee. And so Sokka decided that he would let her enjoy her impromptu coffee date with her soulmates.

“Hey, Toph, let’s go find a poetry reading. We can argue about whether the poems are good or silly.”

Toph laughed and answered, “Okay, but I still think poems are pretty silly.”

Poems were not silly, and Sokka told her as much, but after letting Suki know where they were going the two of them were off playfully bickering.

It was shortly before bed that the promised text from Zuko came through.

**Unknown Number:** Sorry I didnt text earlier

**Unknown Number:** Something back home came up and I only got off the phone a few minutes ago

Sokka didn’t know what to make of that, but he figured asking wouldn’t hurt, so he did.

**Boomerang Guy:** Did something happen

**Unknown Number:** Not really

**Unknown Number:** Just some paperwork that I needed to deal with

From what Zuko had told him, he was from the Fire Nation, so paperwork made sense. Zuko had mentioned he would be going to school at Ba Sing Se University just like Sokka. And Sokka himself had to redo his paperwork for his visa due to an error with some sort of bureaucratic computer system. That had been the day before the camp had started, but he knew it was taking some time for everyone affected to be told.

They had claimed that it was a glitch in their server and hundreds of student visas had their information corrupted, but that was just bureaucratic speech for either “we fucked up” or “we got hacked”.

**Boomerang Guy:** Your visa got deleted as well

**Unknown Number:** Yeah but I got that dealt with maybe a week ago

**Unknown Number:** This was family stuff

**Boomerang Guy:** You want to talk about it?

**Unknown Number:** I cant atm legal stuff

Legal stuff and family in the same context was almost never good, and if Zuko couldn’t talk about it… Well, Sokka couldn’t imagine it was anything good.

He thought back to the scar on Zuko’s face and how as of yet no mention of Zuko’s father had been made. Sure he had briefly and rather sadly spoke of his mother, but still no mention of his father.

Sokka wasn’t sure he wanted to know if that had anything to do with the paperwork Zuko had to deal with that day. So he didn’t ask. Zuko had already said he couldn’t talk about it. There would be no point in asking.

**Boomerang Guy:** You want a distraction?

**Unknown Number:** ?

**Unknown Number:** I guess

Sokka smiled and after finding a good meme sent it off to Zuko.

It was the first of many that night, but it was time well spent. It was time spent making Zuko smile. And Sokka, when he did finally fall asleep, didn’t have a single thought about the golden tattoo on his back.

He only thought of Zuko’s smile, and when he dreamt he only dreamt of that same smile.

Over the next week, Sokka half-heartedly searched Instagram for anyone who had been at Jet’s party, but for the most part, he prepared for the upcoming school year and exchanged texts with Zuko. And when he could manage, they would meet up at the Jasmine Dragon for coffee.

As it turned out, Zuko had once worked at one in Caldera City during his teenage years. It had been his uncle’s idea and while Zuko had hated the customers, he had however enjoyed the work.

Sokka traded his own stories with Zuko. He told him about his childhood and what school was like for him, along with why he had decided to transfer to BSSU after the first few years of university.

The two were studying for different majors. While Sokka was going to be studying engineering, Zuko had explained he would be studying political science and public policy. Zuko clearly wanted to go into politics once he finished with his studies.

And Sokka had wondered about that, but if anyone was going to be a politician, he was glad at least this one had worked in foodservice. Suki always said that it would do anyone who became a politician to work in the service industry, be it retail or food.

So hoping to impress her at the time, Sokka had gotten a job at a family-owned restaurant the summer between his first two years of university.

He ended up hating it. Sure the owners were nice, but the customers were often terrible. The ones who realized who he was, or more who his dad was, would be nice. But it was that fake kind of nice that people do when they want something from you. Somehow he hated those customers more than the ones who didn’t realize who he was.

Maybe it was because the ones who were fake nice to him would have been counted among those who were ignorant if they hadn’t recognized them.

Either way, the job had proven to do exactly what Suki had hoped.

The job had given him perspective.

They dated during their second year of university, but by the end of the year they broke up. It had been mutual. Feelings of romance had faded and settled into a deep friendship.

But sitting in the Jasmine Dragon as Zuko laughed at one of his jokes, Sokka knew he was once again feeling those feelings of romance. And to be frank, if he was looking retrospectively at the way he had felt about Zuko this whole time, save that first day when he had misjudged Zuko, he had even then felt the same feelings.

But he had a soulmate and because of that, he could not be with Zuko.

And to complicate his feelings for Zuko even further, Zuko himself had a soulmate out there who Zuko had yet to meet.

So all he could offer Zuko was friendship.

Thoughts like these plagued Sokka at the start of term and distracted him for a few days before homework succeeded in distracting him. However, that distraction failed him whenever they met up at the Jasmine Dragon to study together.

So Sokka had taken to pretending to study during their time together, only to go home after and actually study and work on his homework.

And it was during one such pretend study session that he sat joking with Zuko, while their friends sat with them each tied up in their own studies.

He looked away from Zuko for a moment and caught a look pass between Suki and Azula. It was the same look that he had seen Katara and Aang exchanged when he and Suki had hung out around their house with Sokka prior to them getting together.

So maybe he didn’t do the greatest job of hiding his feelings for Zuko from anyone but Zuko himself. To his credit, Zuko hadn’t seemed to pick up on his feelings. Though he couldn’t tell how much that was to do with Zuko simply just being oblivious or having believed Sokka when he followed up a flirty joke with the assurance that he meant it just as a friend.

He looked back to Zuko and released his friend’s hands from his own before he let the poem he had been reciting, one of his own making, cease passing through his lips.

The moment in hindsight was maybe a touch too obvious. It had been too heartfelt to deny to the others what his feelings for Zuko were. And perhaps he should have saved such a moment for when it was just him and Zuko. More so because somehow still Zuko remained oblivious from the feelings Sokka had inadvertently expressed.

A glance at Jee who sat at a nearby table assured him that even he had seen and understood Sokka’s feelings.

By the humored look on the man’s face, it was more than clear to him that this may not have been the first time that Sokka had been so transparent. This just being the first time Sokkka had caught himself.

Sokka needed to change the subject…

“You know it is starting to get cold out.” Sokka began. “We should go swimming before we lose the chance. How about this weekend. I don’t think any of us have classes that day.”

“And stand in the sun? I don’t think so.” Was Mai’s answer.

Ty Lee glanced between Mai and Sokka, before she sided with her soulmate, “It sounds like fun, but I don’t want Mai feeling left out. So I don’t want to go.”

Sokka looked to Toph and pleaded, “Toph?”

“No thanks. I can’t swim, and I want to wait until wrestling season is over before I try learning.” Toph snorted.

Sokka looked to Suki and at the innocent smile she flashed at him, he knew she had decided to stick him alone.

Her answer was sweet but mischievous, saying, “You know I think it's been too long since I went on a date with my girls.”

Azula now spoke, with a calculating smile, “I have better things to do.”

Sokka sighed and then gave Zuko a weak smile, but when he saw the nervous look on Zuko’s face the smile faded. Something wasn’t right about that look. The nervousness seemed to border on something a little more fearful.

“Zuko?” Sokka asked, concern leaking into his voice.

Zuko didn’t make eye contact, instead tugging at something hiding beneath his oversized hoodie. A nervous habit that Sokka had quickly taken note of. A habit that Sokka didn’t quite understand but respected nonetheless.

He glanced at their friends and saw that same nervous energy had spread to the other Fire Nation women at their table. And a quick look at Jee’s face revealed a hard look that bordered on threatening.

And then back at Zuko Sokka’s eyes went.

Zuko finally spoke up, saying, “I don’t really go swimming anymore…”

“It’s okay if you don’t know how to swim.” Sokka comforted. “I can teach you if you want. No judgment.”

There was a touch of panic in Zuko’s eyes that told Sokka that was somehow the wrong thing to say. And Sokka couldn’t make sense of it. A glance at Suki, pleading for help, showed him that she had realized something he hadn’t.

She wasn’t looking at him though. She was looking at Zuko with a silent “oh” on her lips.

Looking at Toph revealed that she had come to whatever mysterious conclusion that Suki had come to.

Sokka furrowed his brow in confusion, but then Zuko added to his explanation.

“I… I uh… I wear a binder?”

Sokka didn’t understand for a moment. He had friends back in the Southern Water Tribe who wore binders. They even set aside their older worn-out ones to go swimming in.

“Do you not have a swim binder?”

The sudden and instant relief that washed over Zuko’s face at those words broke the building tension, and he gave an exhausted sounding laugh, answering, “I have one, but if it’s okay with you I’ll wear a swim shirt on over it.”

“I’ll wear one too.” Sokka assured, and the smile Zuko gave him dispelled the last of the nervous energy from their table.

If a pamphlet about a local trans support group mysteriously appeared in Zuko’s backpack that weekend, Sokka didn’t say anything about it.

And that night when Sokka got home and was preparing for bed, he got a text.

There was a picture of the pamphlet followed by another text message.

**Hotman:** Thank you

**Hotman:** I already have been going but once a month they let us bring a friend

**Hotman:** So if you ever want to go with the offer is open

Sokka smiled as he answered.

**Boomerang Guy:** Just let me know when and ill be there

There were more hangouts like this one. Sokka or Zuko would suggest an activity and the rest of their group would bail on them. It was clear what they were trying to do, but Sokka had already resolved to not allow their plan to work.

Even if he had long since stopped trying to figure out who his soulmate was.

It had been a few months since he had even made a half-hearted effort.

He would try but then his thoughts would drift to Zuko, and he couldn’t bring himself to go through the posts from the party and contact any new names he came across. Nor would he check forums dedicated to people in the same position that he had found himself in.

But no one on the forum had the same soul mark tattoo of a wolf and a dragon. So there hadn’t been much of a point in staying on the forum. If his soulmate had been on one of them, he would have found them.

The only question was if Sokka would have gone through with contacting them.

It would be the decent thing to do.

Sokka liked to think he would do the decent thing.

He hoped he might have done the decent thing.

But…

The decent thing to do would have been to keep looking and Sokka certainly hadn’t.

But the smile on Zuko’s face when they met up at the Jasmine Dragon to grab coffees before going to the support group made him forget about those thoughts.

It was growing colder out now, as winter began to approach.

So it was only natural that Sokka brought up ice skating.

Toph refused outright, explaining that she already didn’t like ice because of how slippery it was and she hated how it felt on her cane. Mai admitted that she didn’t know how to skate, but Ty Lee and Suki assured her that the two of them could teach her. And Azula told them that she actually had to tutor another student the night they wanted to go skating.

Zuko agreed to go, but he always agreed to hangout. So Sokka wasn’t surprised by it.

But then Ty Lee caught a cold, so Mai and Suki canceled in favor of taking care of their girlfriend. Sokka understood and asked them to give Ty Lee his get well soon before he left to pick up Zuko.

When he arrived at Zuko’s house, Jee was dropping Zuko off there.

Zuko got out of the black sedan and took a step towards the front door for a moment before he caught sight of Sokka’s truck. He changed his course and strode over before getting in and buckling his seat belt, greeting Sokka with a smile.

“I thought you said you were at home?”

Zuko held up a shopping bag and answered, “I didn’t have ice skates… I had to go buy some.”

“Oh boy, you are going to get blisters.” Sokka laughed, before putting his truck in reverse and backing out of the driveway. “You have to break them in first.”

“Oh…,” Zuko mumbled before glancing down at the bag in his hands. “I didn’t know that.”

“Have you never been ice skating?”

“Uh… Not really. There isn’t really snow in the Fire Nation.”

Sokka raised an eyebrow and said, “Yeah, I know that but Ty Lee knows how to ice skate.”

Zuko shrugged and answered, “She use to go on trips with her family and learn how during one of them.”

“Makes sense. If you want I can teach you since it is going to be just the two of us.”

“That sounds nice,” Zuko replied with the smile he seemed to reserve for only Sokka.

They chatted while Sokka drove them to the lake, but it was as they arrived in the empty parking lot, that Sokka realized something was off. He glanced out his back window but he didn’t see any other cars. For a few moments he couldn’t figure out why that was weird, but Zuko dispelled the mystery for him.

“Oh, uh, Uncle Jee had to go get medicine for Mai and pick Azula up from tutoring.” Zuko explained before adding, “He’ll probably show up later though.”

Sokka felt himself calm at knowing what had felt so strange about the empty parking lot, and he laughed a bit before getting out of the truck to lead Zuko over to the frozen lake.

Thankfully there was a bench sitting not too far from the edge of the lake. So they sat down and Zuko removed a box from the shopping bag, before opening it to reveal the brand new ice skates. Sokka took a quick glance over the skates, before pausing with his own ice skates halfway out of the sports bag he had brought with him.

“Those are pretty high-end. I think Katara has a pair from the same brand. Good choice.”

Zuko preened under the praise, before shrugging and kicking off his winter boots to pull them on.

Though spying the toe pick on them Sokka couldn’t help but look at the tip of his own skates. His didn’t have a toe pick, seeing as they were hockey skates. Sokka once owned a pair of figure skates but that was when he was a little kid, but he had kept tripping on the toe pick and refused to ever wear them again, instead choosing to wear his favorite pair of hockey skates whenever his family went skating.

This would affect how he taught Zuko to skate… But he had taught people with figure skates the basics of ice skating before so it wouldn’t be a problem. He would just have to make sure to watch Zuko’s footwork a little closer than if he had bought hockey skates.

Sokka made quick work of slipping his own skates on and lacing them up before he spotted Zuko standing up without tucking his laces into the boot portion of his skates.

“Sit down, you still need to tuck your laces in.” Sokka sighed, as he got up and squatted down in front of Zuko to help, before realizing that the laces were loose.

Zuko said nothing as Sokka untied the laces and then redid the laces before tucking them in for him.

“There you go,” Sokka said with a smile before he helped Zuko to his feet once more, and after quickly popping the blade covers off from his own skates and stashing them in his bag, along with their shoes, Sokka led Zuko on over to the edge of the pond.

And for the next ten or so minutes, Sokka was diligent in teaching Zuko how to skate on that empty lake, somehow devoid of other people.

The lake had come highly recommended by his teammates on the hockey team, who upon hearing that he was going to be going there with Zuko had gotten that same look on their face that the rest of their friends would get before- Oh, that was why no one else was at Lake Laogai tonight.

But in the single moment, he was distracted by his thoughts, he heard Zuko’s toe pick dig into the ice and Zuko lurched forward with a cry and Sokka threw his arms around Zuko’s waist to stop him from falling on his face.

For a moment neither of them moved, eyes locked on one another.

And call Sokka a hopeless romantic that maybe watched a few too many Lifetime straight to tv Christmas movies, but Zuko looked almost ethereal as the snow gently danced down around his face. His eyes sparkling in the moonlight like his eyes themselves held the midnight sky of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night Over The Rhône”.

The snowflakes catching on Zuko’s eyelashes, like tiny twinkling stars…

A couple of those snowflakes made their home on the ridges of Zuko’s scar, and Sokka lifted a hand to brush those flakes off, gently caressing the scarred cheek.

He shouldn’t have done it, but he kept his hand there warming Zuko’s cheek with his hand.

And then he leaned in and met Zuko’s lips.

They were chapped from the cold, but they moved with him for a moment, before Zuko suddenly pushed him away.

“What about your soulmate?” Zuko asked, a look of confusion swirling about in his eyes.

Sokka knew that the owl cat was pretty much out of the bag at this point, so he answered honestly, “I stopped looking for them a while ago. Even if I found them… I don’t think I would have even reached out to them. I think I might be in love with you, and if I could have you I wouldn’t need them because you’re the one I want.”

Zuko was still held in his arms, and the arms that he pushed him away just enough to break the kiss reached up to loop around his neck, as he answered, “Then have me.”

This time Zuko kissed Sokka.

Soulmates be damned, he had Zuko.


	4. Bonus Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Read the author's notes for this one as I list content that may be found triggering. If I missed something please let me know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The is a car wreck in this chapter, people shooting guns, minor character death (an oc [not Lee Chen but a new oc]) and Zuko has a panic attack/emotional breakdown and breaks two dudes noses. If that is going to be triggering skip this chapter and I will leave a summary of what happened in the chapter notes of the next chapter.
> 
> beta read by H_Faith_Marr

“Are you sure that you can’t come spend the winter holiday with me and my family?” Sokka asked as Zuko sat on his boyfriend’s bed, watching Sokka pack a suitcase for his own trip home for the break.

Zuko sighed, and glanced at the wrinkled blue t-shirt draped over the back of Sokka’s desk, before saying, “I have to take care of some family stuff, during the break.”

“You could bring them with you if you wanted.”

Zuko shook his head no and gave his gorgeous boyfriend a tense smile.

Sokka frowned and looked puzzled for a moment before asking, “Does this have anything to do with the mysterious paperwork you keep having to work on?”

“Yeah… But it’s really more of a formality than anything. When it's finally over, I can finally tell you about it,” Zuko answered, squashing down the rising feeling of guilt building in his stomach.

Sokka smiled at him radiantly, “Here’s to hoping it all goes smoothly.” And kissed the tip of his nose, before turning away to zip up the suitcase he had been packing.

Zuko smiled at Sokka softly, before his phone buzzed and he glanced down at where it lay clasped in his hands.

**Uncle Jee:** If we want to keep with the flight plan, you need to get going.

He sighed, and looked up from his phone to Sokka before getting up from the bed and saying, “If we don’t get going soon, I’ll miss my flight.”

“I could just give you a ride to the airport, and that way we would get to spend a little more time together before we have to go separate ways for break.” Sokka was giving him those polar dog puppy eyes that Zuko was all too weak to, but if Sokka was the one to take him to the airport…

Well, there were just some things that Zuko wasn’t yet allowed to let Sokka know, no matter how much he wanted to tell Sokka everything.

“Uncle Jee has to drive me. I’m sorry.” But after a moment of silence, he added with a smile, “The day after I get home, I am going to finally be getting top surgery.”

Sokka looked up from the suitcase and at Zuko, before wrapping him in a bear hug, shouting joyfully, “Baby! I am so happy for you! Why didn’t you tell me before? I would have offered to go back to the Fire Nation with you for break!”

“Uncle Iroh left me a voicemail this morning to let me know that it was finally greenlit,” Zuko answered, soaking up every bit of love he could from the hug, hoping that it would be able to hold him over during the break and all the nonsense he was about to have to deal with following the surgery.

  
  


“Is this what you were having to do all that paperwork for?”

Zuko shook his head, but he was still smiling this time, as he answered, “No, we were just waiting to hear back from the surgeons. I should be mostly healed up when I get back in Ba Sing Se, though.”

When Sokka dropped Zuko off at the house, he was able to get one last final hug that didn’t last nearly as long as he wished it would before he had to get out of Sokka’s truck. He looked back at Sokka before unlocking the door and heading inside.

A few moments later, he heard Sokka’s truck back out and then drive away.

Zuko sighed and then went and flopped down on the couch in the carefully nondescript living room, figuring it would only be a minute or two before Uncle Jee would show up to pick him up.

A text came through on his phone from Jee, and Zuko sat up from the couch to check the message, already expecting to see a text reading that he was pulling into the safe house driveway, but the message he saw when he opened the text was…

**Uncle Jee:** OBS RGO Kenzo will provide escort

Zuko froze.

But then RG Operatives Kenzo and Lee burst into the living room from the first door down the hall. Operative Lee already had his side piece drawn, while Kenzo had a hand gripping his own where it sat in his side holster.

Kenzo quickly yanked the blinds closed before grabbing Zuko by the arm and booking it with Lee to the garage door. Operative Lee stood behind them, facing away and sweeping his gun from front door to window to back door, while Kenzo released Zuko’s arm and unlocked the door.

A moment later, Zuko was pushed out of the sightline of the door to the garage before the operatives yanked the door open and drew his weapon to do a quick sweep of the room. Once he decided there was no one in there other than some other RG Operatives, he pulled Zuko into the garage with him and throw him into the back seat of the waiting suburban.

Lee entered a beat later, closing the door behind him, before hopping into the back seat with Zuko, another operative hopping in the other side. Kenzo got into the driver’s seat, and the final operative jumped into the front passenger seat.

Zuko made to buckle his seat, but Lee stopped him, ordering, “On the ground, sir.”

“TD EO is go, over,” Kenzo called into his bluetooth earpiece, and once Zuko had got down onto the floor of the suburban, clicked the garage remote and began driving.

Zuko was confused and looked up at Lee, demanding, “What the fuck is going on!?”

“Zhao was spotted three streets over, Sir.”

“The visa hack!” Zuko groaned, “That was him and his people, wasn’t it.”

“We believe so, Sir,” Lee confirmed.

Of course, Zhao would pull something like this. He had probably deleted all of those student visas in the hack to cover his tracks.

“How did he even know I was in the Earth Kingdom to begin with?”

Kenzo answered this time, saying, “We don’t know, but there must be a mole back home, Sir.”

A moment later, Zuko realized…

Three streets away.

If Zhao was three streets away, he could have been tailing Sokka’s car. Sokka could be in danger. Sokka who had grown used to being shadowed by Jee whenever Zuko was with Sokka.

Zuko went to grab his phone, but when he reached into his pocket, his hand felt nothing.

He had been holding his phone when he had been abruptly hauled off to the car. He must have dropped it. _Shit._ He would just have to get a new one when he got back to Caldera City.

“I dropped my phone in the safe house. RGO Lee, call in a remote wipe for it. If Zhao is here, he won’t be alone.”

Lee nodded and relaid Zuko’s orders to someone, but almost as soon the order had gone through, the car lurched to the side, and one of the operatives was shouting something, while Lee put a hand down on Zuko’s back to keep him in place, so he wouldn’t get banged up.

But then Kenzo suddenly shouted, “SHIT!”

Something slammed into the side of their passenger side of the car, and the world went sideways, and Lee snatched him and pulled him against his chest with what felt like a bone-crushing embrace.

When the world went still, the car was upside down for a few moments until Lee gently lowered him to the ground before bracing his feet against the floor of the vehicle and one of his hands to the roof. He used the free one to unbuckle.

But while Lee, Kenzo, and the operative who had been sitting up front were righting themselves, Zuko heard a wet gurgling sound, and his eyes followed the sound to the final operative.

Zuko felt a chill run over him at the crumpled in door and blood trickling out from the lips of a man who he hadn’t yet learned the name of.

Lee reached past Zuko and unholstered the man’s sidearm before grabbing Zuko’s arm and placing the gun in it.

“We don’t have time to check on him,” Lee whispered to him before ushering him out the destroyed window. “Follow Kenzo, Haken, and I will bring up the rear. We need to get you to safety, Sir.”

Zuko felt numb, but Kenzo grabbed him by the shoulder and guided him quietly into the alleyway that opened up on their side of the car as the sound of slamming car doors rang out, signaling that those in the car that had hit them had survived.

They had nearly reached the other end of the alleyway when shots rang out.,

Zuko wanted to look back, but Kenzo must have sensed what he was about to do and his grip on Zuko’s shoulder went tight, and the man steered him forward and around the corner, shouting something into his bluetooth.

They had burst out into the Bosco Mall parking lot.

“You know how to jack a car?” Kenzo asked as he guided Zuko, and hopefully Lee and Haken, around the nearest car, where they took cover as more shots came flying.

Zuko spotted the other two operatives ducking behind a minivan, as he answered, “Uncle Jee taught me, just in case I-”

But Kenzo interrupted him and pointed at an older minivan a little further into the parking lot, “We are going to take that one.”

Zuko gave one nod before the man peeked out over the hood of the grey sedan for a moment before grabbing him by the shoulder and shouting, “Covering Fire!” Then he was dragging Zuko along with him over to the far side of the minivan, fishing a lockpick out of his back pocket, and handed it to Zuko before popping up and firing his gun.

Zuko set to work on the lock, doing his best to tune out the gunfire around him.

Once he had the door open, he spotted something shiny wedged between the seat and base of the center console. Zuko blinked at the object for a moment before it finally processed what he was seeing.

It was a ring of keys sitting on top of a handful of half moldy french fries.

Zuko squeezed his hand into the gap and managed to grasp one of the keys and pulled them out, laughing at his luck, “They left the key.”

Kenzo snatched the keys from him and hauled him into the car with him before he shoved Zuko into the back seats, shouting, “Get your asses over here! We are going, now!”

Zuko popped open the back door for Lee and Haken, who jumped in; well, Kenzo shoved the key into the ignition and got the car started before pulling out of the parking spot and turning the car to face the entrance to the alleyway, where three gunmen stood.

Then he floored it.

Two of the men were able to jump out of the way, but the man in the middle of them wasn’t nearly as lucky.

They hit him head on, and he disappeared under their stolen minivan, and then they were shooting out the other side of the alley and hooking a hard right and flying down the street.

A few minutes later, there was a set of flashing lights behind them, but Kenzo didn’t slow down.

He didn’t slow down until they reached the gates to the big gate outside of the manor that Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee had been living in with Jee.

Finally, they stopped, as a squad of more RGOs stepped out to block the road, until Kenzo called out to them through the broken window and then they stepped out of the way and one of them waved to someone standing in a guard tower to let them through.

The flashing lights behind them turned off and the gate closed behind them.

When they pulled up in the courtyard, Zuko let out a sigh of relief.

It was over.

He was safe.

Someone opened the door and pulled him into a bearhug, crying into his shoulder.

Zuko didn’t react for a moment before he recognized the scent of his Uncle Jee’s shampoo, and then for the first time since that text, he relaxed.

* * *

Sokka arrived back home and then checked the clock on his phone. He had another two hours before he needed to leave for the airport and four missed calls from Suki.

There was no “drive safe” text from Zuko, though, which was weird.

Zuko always sent him a drive safe whenever he knew Sokka would be driving.

Though Zuko probably just had to rush off to the airport.

Suki’s car had been in the driveway, so rather than check his voicemail, Sokka decided that he would just find out what was going on in person.

His brief moment of anxiety abated at the thought before he stuffed his keys in his pocket and made his way to the living room, where Toph and Suki sat unmoving, as the news played on the TV.

“Gunfire has broken out in the shopping district after a major wreck. Police advice if you are in the area to take cover.”

Zuko didn’t live that far from the shopping district.

Toph shot up from where she sat and barreled into him, throwing her arms around him, shouting, “You didn’t answer your phone!”

Suki’s eyes shot away from the TV, and she too now rushed him and pulled him into a hug.

“Sokka, you’re okay,” Suki breathed into his chest. “You had us worried.”

“Uh… Yeah, I’m fine? I just dropped Zuko off at his house. What is going on?”

Sokka had to know that Zuko wasn’t the one in the car wreck. He had to know that Zuko was safe and sound, still at home, helping load Jee’s sedan with luggage.

And so Suki explained what was happening on the news.

A small gunfight broke out between two unnamed men, a few minutes before a car wreck, involving two different suburbans. And that people had gotten out of both cars only to open fire on each other before one group stole a car and ran over one of the guys who had hit them.

Sokka felt relief. Jee didn’t drive a suburban. Zuko should be fine, but he needed to text Zuko to make sure he was safe. Or to see if he knew what had happened.

So once his friends finally released him he shot Zuko a quick text.

**Boomerang Guy:** Hey

 **Boomerang Guy:** Did you check the news?

There was no reply… Maybe Zuko hadn’t seen the message. He might be busy with the luggage. That had to be it…

**Boomerang Guy:** Text me when you get this

Still no reply.

Sokka had to push down the nervous feelings in him.

He decided to text their group text instead, worry getting the better of him.

**Boomerang Guy:** Hey I saw the news

 **Boomerang Guy:** Just checking in to see if you guys are okay

 **Boomerang Guy:** Zuko isn’t answering my texts

There was no response other than Suki and Toph’s phones chiming from his text.

Suki read out his text to Toph before Sokka started saying, “Maybe I should go and-”

“Sokka, I know you want to check on Zuko, but we should wait for it to calm down first. I’m sure Zuko is at home with them and watching the news. Just sit down and take some deep breaths.” Suki told him, as she guided him to sit down on the couch, before shutting the news off.

Sokka felt better without the news anchor telling them about the carnage.

A half-hour later a text from Azula come through on the group chat.

**Bad Ass:** We are fine. Zuko is just shaken up and his phone got broken.

 **Bad Ass:** Our plane is boarding, so he will text you, once we settle in back home.

Sokka sighed in relief, before slumping back on the couch.

**Boomerang Guy:** Okay ty for letting me know

 **Boomerang Guy:** Have a safe flight

* * *

After being patched up by Doctor Minyu, and a brief lecture from the man that even though Zuko had somehow avoided any serious injuries not to pull a stunt like that, he was loaded into an armored vehicle with his sister and friends to head to the airport.

Of course this time with an armed escort of three other similarly armored vehicles. Their RGOs weren’t about to risk a repeat of earlier that day.

Zuko was tired, and Dr. Minyu had given him something for the pain that left him drowsy.

He didn’t bother trying to stay awake.

He didn’t dream at all or if he did it vanished from his recollection as soon as Azula gently woke him up.

No words were said, as he got out of the car and boarded their private plane, The Dragon’s Claw, only to go find one of the bedrooms to lay down and go back to sleep. And another dreamless sleep later they were back in the Fire Nation.

Zuko laid in the bed for a moment, Azula once again having been the one to wake him up. She didn’t say anything, but she sat there on the edge of the bed not really looking at him.

He appreciated it and after a few moments, he silently got up and left the cabin.

He still felt numb.

When he stepped off from the plane, there was a rush of red robes and a glint of gold fire set atop a head of silver hair and suddenly he was being held in his Uncle Iroh’s arms and that dam of numbness broke. And then he was openly sobbing.

“Don’t you ever worry me like that ever again. I was terrified that I had lost you,” Uncle murmured, wet tears of his own soaking into Zuko’s hoodie.

Jee stepped over and cleared his throat, Kenzo and Lee flanking his sides.

Zuko and Uncle separated after a few moments, and then looked to Uncle Jee.

“We should get everyone into the convoy. The less time we spend in the open the better, Fire Lord Iroh,” Uncle Jee stated, before heading over to the armored limo that the Fire Lord had come to the airport in.

Zuko suddenly realized something, and he stopped Operative Kenzo, a hand on his shoulder, and asked, “What was his name?”

Kenzo didn’t have to ask who Zuko meant.

“Hiroga… He had a soulmate. Her name is Asahi, Sir.”

Zuko nodded, and ordered, “Make sure she is well provided for.” And then he was ducking into the limo to sit with his uncles, while Azula and their friends finally made their way off the Dragon’s Claw.

He glanced over at the liquor cabinet, but Kenzo shook his head no and then sat down next to it, almost as though to say “ _if you even think about it, I will stop you._ ”

It felt like being thirteen again, gunshots ringing out as Jee had burst into his bedroom carrying Azula…

The first volley of shots had been what woke him up.

Then came two thuds just outside his door, where two RGOs were stationed.

Operative Shinzu started to shout something, but whatever the man had been planning to say was cut short by two quick gunshots in rapid succession. Zuko couldn't move.

He needed to move, to get out of bed and go hide, but he was frozen.

Someone was outside his door and had just shot his guards, but then Jee had burst in, carrying Azula in one arm and holding a gun with his free hand.

_Jee?_ Jee had shot his guards? But Uncle liked Jee and had spoken highly of the man?

**Why did Jee have his sister!?**

“Zuko, your uncle sent me. We have to leave now!”

Zuko blinked a few times, banishing the memory. Of all times to be thinking about that, now wasn’t the time. So much had changed that night…

Everything had changed that night.

They had fled the capital and gone to seek refuge at the Western Air Temple, where the nuns had hidden them away from the outside world.

The first night of their three year long stay, Zuko had been so confused. Uncle hadn’t come with them and Jee wouldn’t tell him what was going on. So he had wanted something to take the edge off, and he had gone searching through the cupboards of the apartment they had been given to stay in until he finally found what he was looking for.

But then Jee walked back into their living room, having just gotten Azula down for bed.

“If you drink that, you might not stop, kid.”

Zuko had looked between the bottle of wine and Jee for a moment, but he had listened and closed the cupboard.

“I get it, you’re scared and confused. You have every right to be.” Jee had sighed tiredly, before gesturing for Zuko to come sit on the living room floor with him. “Your uncle has a friend who might be about to help you feel a little less scared.”

Zuko stood by the cabinet for a moment, before he went to sit against the door to his and Azula’s bedroom, but he said nothing.

Jee, if he had been offended, made no comment, before asking, “Tell me, Zuko, do you like swords?”

Azula put a hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of the memories, and then he glanced over at her in confusion.

The look on her face was much the same one she had given him during those first few months, as she asked, “Maybe you should give Sister Yangchen a call when we get home.”

Zuko gave her a small, appreciative smile and answered, “Yeah, maybe I should, but I want to practice with my swords first, so after that, I’ll call her.”

The rest of the ride to the palace was spent in silence, as Zuko tried to banish the sounds of wet gurgles and gunshots from his mind.

But he couldn’t forget the color red.

The city was bathed in it. The palace was coated in it. All of the non-plainclothes RGOs were decked head to toe in it.

Zuko only just made it inside his bedroom, before he vomited and broke down crying again.

Thankfully Lee and Kenzo didn’t say anything.

No, instead they made a sweep of his room, and Zuko was reminded again, that just because his dad wasn’t Fire Lord anymore, that didn’t mean he was safe.

Once his tears had slowed, and he trusted himself to stand up, Zuko walked to his bathroom in a daze to brush his teeth. But when he looked up in the mirror, after he had finished brushing, he was met with a face that he almost didn’t recognize.

There was dried blood caked into his hair and he hadn’t changed out of his clothes from the incident yet. Doctor Minyu had thankfully wiped away any blood on his face.

But it was the tired, emptiness that made its home on his face that was both foreign and familiar to him.

It reminded him of when they had finally received news from Uncle Iroh that it was safe to come home, but that there was bad news. Bad news, after a year and a half of hearing not a peep from the outside world!

But then Uncle had told him that it was about his mo-

Zuko shook his head, banishing the memory. He didn’t want to think about this. Not right now.

Then he froze, dried flakes of blood drifting lazily down to the basin of his sink.

Zuko hadn’t had a head wound- Oh god…

Fuck. _Fuck!_ **FUCK!**

That wasn’t his blood. He hadn’t gotten close enough to their assailants to-

That was Hiroga’s blood. He was covered in Hiroga’s blood!

Zuko was instantly ripping his clothes off in a blind panic. He was covered in a good man’s blood and he needed to get it off. He needed to get it off right the fuck now!

He almost fell getting into the shower and turning the knob all the way to hot. He was going to be sick. He had a good man’s blood all over him. He needed to wash it off!

Kenzo and Lee were suddenly in the bathroom with him and someone was restraining him, while the other reached for the knob of the shower, but Zuko kicked him in the face before slipping an arm free and elbowing whoever was trying to restrain him.

He could feel the spurt of fresh blood splatter all over his shoulder, as he was pressed against the wall and someone shouted, “LEE, GO GET FUCKING JEE RIGHT NOW!”

Zuko struggled, but he was held firm.

Someone was screaming and it sounded like his own voice, begging and pleading to just let him wash the blood off. He needed to get the blood off.

He didn’t know how long he screamed and thrashed, but suddenly those arms holding him down disappeared and someone else was pulling him into their arms.

Pinewood scented shampoo filling his nostrils.

Uncle Jee was holding him…

The pounding of his heart slowed, as the man hummed a soft lullaby in his good ear. And the panic faded.

Zuko was shaking as he clung to his uncle.

Jee helped him to sit down at the base of the shower, before saying something to someone else in the room, and then cool water was washing over him and Kenzo was handing Uncle Jee the detachable showerhead.

“You’re okay, kid. Let’s get you cleaned up, and then we can put on some musical and I can have someone go fetch you some paints,” Jee soothed, as he began to rinse the fresh blood off from his shoulder.

Kenzo’s face was covered in blood, and Zuko felt his stomach turn.

“I-I, oh sweet Agni, Kenzo- I didn’t- I-” Zuko started, but Kenzo just chuckled.

“Nah, it’s okay, Sir. Your reaction is totally normal,” Kenzo assured before he ducked out of sight of Zuko. “Nothing that Doctor Minyu can’t handle. It’s just a broken nose.”

Jee carried on with talking, and asked, “Do you know what musical you want me to put on for you, kiddo?”

Zuko looked back at Jee and blinked in confusion.

“For while you paint? What musical you want to watch?”

“Can we watch Prom?” Zuko asked tentatively, still confused by the change in subject.

His Uncle Jee smiled at him and declared, “You know I don’t think I’ve had the chance to see that one, but I have been wanting to. Good choice kiddo.”

Okay, Zuko was just downright puzzled now.

“Yah know, you remind me a lot of my niece,” Jee said with a jovial laugh.

“Huh?”

Jee gave him a big grin and declared, “You both have an awesome uncle named Jee!”

Zuko couldn’t help the snort of laughter at what his uncle had just said.

“There’s that smile!” Jee cheered, before he handed the showerhead to Zuko, and reached away to grab a loofah and some soap. “Now lean forward so I can get your back, kiddo.”

Zuko did, and then Jee went dead silent.

He glanced over his shoulder at his uncle, but the “what’s wrong” that he was about to ask caught in his throat at the ashen face of horror on his uncle’s face.

Jee set the loofa and soap down, before asking seriously, “Zuko… Who touched your soul mark?”


	5. Southern Water Tribe///Secretly Dating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are mentions of character deaths but they happened before the story began. (Ursa, Lu Ten, and Ozai)  
> Welcome to the second half of the never ending chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who had to skip the last chapter, this is the basic idea of what happened...
> 
> Sokka drops Zuko off at what turned out to have been a safe house this whole time.  
> Zuko gets a text from Jee that warns him that there is danger.  
> Zuko's other bodyguards try to escort him to the manor/compound he has actually been living at while in BSS.  
> The visas getting deleted was actually Zhao hacking the govt. stuff so he could figure out where Zuko is because there is a mole that knew Zuko had transferred to a school in the Earth Kingdom for uni.  
> Zhao brought friends. These friends crash a car into the car Zuko is in.  
> Zuko watches one of his guards die and is given a gun.  
> There is a brief shoot out and Zuko steals a car and one of his guards uses it to run over one of Zhao's friends.  
> Sokka arrives home after dropping Zuko off and sees on the news that there was a car wreck and a shoot-out near the safe house that Zuko lives.  
> Zuko gets to the compound/manor he has been living in and Jee gives him a hug and lets Zuko cry.  
> Zuko's doctor checks him over and patches him up.  
> Fire Nation squad gets on the airplane to go back to Caldera City and Zuko crashes from the adrenaline and sleeps.  
> They get back to the palace and Iroh gives Zuko and they cry.  
> Zuko finds out the name of the guard that died (Hiroga) and asks that they make sure the guy's soulmate is cared for (Asahi).  
> Zuko goes to his room and throws up from stress before brushing his teeth.  
> He looks in the mirror and has trauma flashbacks.  
> He remembers gunfire and Jee bringing him and Azula to hide in the Western Air Temple with the nuns who live there.  
> They hid there for three years while Iroh was overthrowing Ozai. Also once that happens he learns about his mom and Lu Ten dying.  
> Zuko realizes he has the dead guard's blood on him from the car wreck and has a breakdown and rips his clothes off and tries to take a boiling hot shower but his body guards don't let him and one goes to get Jee who calms him down.  
> Jee realizes the soul mark on Zuko's back has colored in which means he met his soulmate.  
> Zuko does not know who his soulmate is.

Zuko never did end up texting him, much to Sokka’s shock and dismay.

He had been back home in the Southern Water Tribe for four whole weeks now, and there was still no word. There wasn’t any word from Azula or Jee either.

Suki had gotten ahold of her soulmates, but that hadn’t shed any light on what was going on. They had told them that even they couldn’t get a hold of Zuko and Azula. The afternoon they landed in Caldara City they had been dropped off at their place, and that was the last they saw or heard from the Fire Siblings.

Something was wrong. Sokka knew it. There had to be something wrong for Zuko to not at least send him a text to let him know that the flight had gone okay. Azula said Zuko would text him from her phone when they landed.

But instead, it was radio silence.

What if something had gone wrong during Zuko’s surgery?! Was Zuko okay?

Oh sweet fuck, _was Zuko even alive?!_

Nothing his dads or Katara could say had managed to assuage his perpetually building panic.

“Sokka, I know you are worried about your boyfriend,” his dad began, while his pops watched them with worry from the doorway. “But I am sure I can see if the Fire Lord can send someone to check in on him. Okay?”

Sokka stopped pacing.

“Your dad is right, son,” Pops said with relief, as he pressed a kiss to the top of his dad’s head. “I am sure if we play nice with Fire Lord Iroh and his nephew while they are here, they will be more than happy to find out how Zuko is doing.”

The coil of anxiety didn’t loosen much, but it relaxed enough for Sokka to breathe and nod.

“Now, I know you and Katara already have colored soul mark tattoos, so they won’t be trying to see if he colors with you. But their visit is a long-standing tradition between the four nations. It goes back-” his dad began to explain, but Sokka interrupted him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. It goes back thousands of years and is their way of revealing members of their family to the public because they have the younger royals' identities hidden until they turn eighteen to protect them from assassinations or ransoms.”

Pops grimaced but then corrected him, “Normally, yes, they would wait until the young royal turned eighteen, but they are introducing this one late. He is 21.”

21? That wasn’t right.

“But, they always-”

His dad explained, “Normally, you would be right, but every now and then someone in the Royal Family will overthrow the old Fire Lord, and sometimes they don’t have an heir of their own. So they chose someone else in the family to be their heir.”

Now that Sokka stopped to think about it, six or seven years ago Fire Lord Iroh had thrown the Fire Nation into civil war when he and the Fire Sage Council had decreed that the now late Fire Lord Ozai was to be stripped of his crown for reasons that still remained unknown. There had been fighting for three years, and his father, Chief Arnook, and King Kuei had sent forces to back Fire Lord Iroh in the war.

And then it was just over.

Iroh won. Ozai lost.

Things had changed since then because Fire Lord Iroh had repealed over-inflated import and export tariffs, also with just being a nicer guy in general. The four nations all loved the guy.

“Oh, shit, they are arriving today aren’t they?”

His pops gave a chuckle and answered, “Yep, now go get changed. Your dad and I will see if we can get him to check up on Zuko for you. Meet us downstairs when you’re ready.”

“Okay, Pops.” Sokka answered as he moved to check his closet for something that said “ _appropriate to wear when meeting the Fire Lord and his nephew.”_

But before he got far, his pops added, “And Sokka, you know we don’t care if you marry your soulmate or not. As long as whoever you end up with makes you happy. That’s all that matters to us.”

Sokka smiled at his dads, as they closed the door behind them. He didn’t know why he had ever been nervous to tell them he had stopped looking for his soulmate in favor of being with Zuko.

A half-hour later, they were waiting outside in the winter snow, while they waited for the Fire Lord and his nephew to disembark the plane.

There was a cool looking dragon decal on the tail of the 747 that caught Sokka’s eye for a moment, before several men wearing red fatigues got off the plane.

And a moment later the Fire Lord came into view and greeted his dads warmly.

“Chief Hakoda and Bato of the Water Tribe! It is an honor to be visiting with you. You’re our last stop before we head home to the Fire Nation.”

His dad gave a hearty laugh before striding forward to clap the Fire Lord on the back saying, “Iroh! You old bastard! It’s been too long. Now show us this nephew you’ve been hiding away from the world!”

Iroh and his father had become quick friends when the Fire Lord had learned that Hakoda shared his love for Pai Sho, so this kind of greeting was pretty standard, minus the nephew part.

Sokka just wished Zuko was here, that way he would be able to have someone fun to play Pai Sho with. His pops liked to watch people play, but he never seemed to play the game himself, and Aang always cheated at the game whenever he was in town.

_A technique he had learned from Gyatso apparently._

Iroh turned and called out to someone still on the Dragon’s Claw, “Come, greet our hosts!”

And then Sokka’s world shattered as Zuko stepped into the doorway…

Zuko looked just as surprised to see him as he froze up like a statue.

Sokka couldn’t wrap his thoughts around what was happening.

Zuko was the prince of the Fire Nation and he hadn’t told Sokka? **Zuko was here on the tail end of some Fire Nation soulmate search and introduction tour?!**

**_They had said that they didn’t need their soulmates!_ **

And Zuko had lied to him!

Not only that but he had ghosted Sokka to do it… He could have texted him a heads up at the very least or called him to break up, but he didn’t.

“Zuko, this is Chief Hakoda, his soulmate Bato, and their son Sokka. They are good friends of mine. Come say hi.” Iroh called out with a smile.

For a moment Zuko stayed motionless, but then he slowly made his way down to ground level and came to stand next to his uncle.

Before Zuko could actually greet them though, Jee stepped out into the door hatch of the plane and raced down to meet them. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he glanced between Sokka and Zuko.

His face went puzzled for a moment before he suddenly blurted out, “I need to speak with Zuko in private, Sokka would you come with us?”

Okay, sue him, he was curious what Zuko was going to say in his defense. So he gave his dads a smile and followed Jee and Zuko.

Once a decent distance away Jee looked between the two and then sighed, “I am getting too old for this kind of shit. Did either of you ever think to tell the other who you were?”

_What?_

“I told Zuko who my dads were! He was the one hiding shit and then turned around to go look for his soulmate!” Sokka snapped. “He hasn’t contacted me since I dropped him off at your guy’s place in Ba Sing Se!”

It was Zuko’s turn to be angry now it seemed, as Zuko scoffed, “You never told me your dad was Chief Hakoda! And _this_ isn’t what it looks like-”

“I totally told you! I told you my dads were Hakoda and Bato!”

Zuko froze and then looked to Jee and then back to Sokka, “I didn’t think you meant as in Chief Hakoda and Bato of the Water Tribe?”

There was a look of panic on Zuko’s face and…

_Fuck,_ he might be angry at Zuko, but as much as he couldn’t stand the guy right now, he couldn’t stand that look on his face more.

Sokka sighed, rubbed his face, and said, “Okay, maybe I should have made that a bit more clear. Just… Don’t make that face. Calm down. Just- Why didn’t you tell me you’re the prince of the Fire Nation? That is kind of something you need to tell someone you’re dating.”

“I-I wasn’t allowed to?” Zuko managed, confusion replacing the panic. “Tradition dicta-”

“Not when you are actively dating someone, kid!” Jee suddenly groaned.

Zuko flushed with embarrassment but didn’t say anything.

Sokka still needed answers so he demanded, “So why did you ghost me and run off to go looking for your soulmate.”

Sokka didn’t like the guilty look that passed over Zuko’s face, as he answered, “Sokka, it’s a thousands year old tradition. There would have been a scandal if I didn’t pretend to look. I-”

“Zuko, you don’t pretend to look for a soulmate. If they touch your tattoo, it colors and there is no pretending your way out of it.” Sokka shot back.

But then Zuko blurted out, “My mark colored before I set out on the pretend search. Probably during all of the chaos after the assassination attempt-”

**“Assassanation Attempt?!”**

Jee suddenly clapped a hand over Sokka’s mouth, before he whispered through his teeth, “Keep it down. The fewer people who know about it the better. But yes, there was an attempt on Zuko’s life. We got the BSSNews to report it as gang violence. Zuko couldn’t call you because we were still trying to figure out who the mole was that leaked it to the New Ozai Society that Zuko was living in Ba Sing Se, so no one in the Royal Family could risk putting you or your friends in danger. It’s already bad enough that Zhao of all people figured out that Zuko was spending so much time with you. He followed your truck and I had to intercept him.”

“Wait… So that day you had to go to the airport- You weren't in Jee’s car? Zuko what car were you in?” Sokka did not like what he was hearing at all.

He did not want to know the answer.

He wanted to be wrong.

“The one that got flipped in the wreck?” Zuko admitted.

And suddenly Sokka was checking Zuko over, looking at still healing scrapes on his chin and the nicks on his face. The bruise beginning to show through the foundation that Zuko had rubbed at with his gloves.

“There were guns! Baby, you didn’t- You’re okay, right?” Sokka pleaded, taking those makeup smeared gloved hands in his own. As though that would somehow heal the damage that might be hiding under Zuko’s clothes.

Zuko smiled weakly at him, answering, “It was nothing bad enough I had to reschedule my surgery. And no, I didn’t get shot…” But then Zuko’s face fell and he added, “Not everyone was that lucky. One of my RGOs died… The cold is making my scar ache… Can we get somewhere warm?”

There was no joy in Zuko’s voice and he seemed to be retreating into himself, in a way that Sokka hadn’t seen before.

“Yeah, let’s get in the car.” Sokka agreed, releasing his boyfriend’s hands and noting the way Zuko briefly raised his hand as though to itch at the leathery skin, only to abort the motion and drop the hand down to his side.

  
  


Uncle Jee led the two of them back to Uncle and Sokka’s dads, who had gone quiet and were watching them closely.

* * *

As soon as they were close enough for casual conversation, Uncle smiled sagely and declared, “The traveler who only takes the road directly before him needn't worry where that road will lead to, but that same man will never walk among the wonders of endless wilds, young men.”

Zuko had absolutely zero idea what that was supposed to mean.

“I’m sure the Fire Lord and Zuko would like a chance to settle in.” Sokka chimed in.

Chief Hakoda smiled and turned to look at Uncle Iroh, before asking, “We know you were planning to stay in our embassy building, but as the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, it would be my honor to invite you to stay with my family during your visit.”

“It would be our honor to accept your offer, Chief Hakoda!” Uncle answered, before following Hakoda and Bato to the armored van that had arrived to pick them up since there wouldn’t have been enough room in the car for all of them and their security details.

But then Bato stopped them right before they got into the van and said, “Why don’t the two of you take the car. Sokka you could show the prince around the city. We are just going to be talking about boring government stuff.”

“Take Lieutenant Jee with you though, just to be on the safe side,” Uncle told him before Bato closed the door to the van.

Jee snorted, but just walked with them over to the car shaking his head while the van drove away. They were about halfway to the car when Sokka stopped him.

“I don’t want your scar hurting from the cold, take my scarf.”

And before Zuko could protest that they were almost to the car, Sokka had already unwrapped the scarf from his own neck.

But it was as Sokka started to loop the scarf around Zuko’s neck, that a hawk of all things swooped down between them, grabbed hold of the scarf that Sokka held loosely in gloved hands, and soared back up into the sky, the scarf clutched between its talons.

“Damn it, Hawky! That was my favorite scarf!” Sokka shouted at the hawk.

There was just something so absurd about what had just happened, that Zuko couldn’t help the laughter that erupted from him. And when Sokka looked back at him, he couldn’t help but break out into a fit of laughter as well.

* * *

Okay, so maybe Hawky stealing his favorite scarf hadn’t been ideal, but Zuko’s laugh more than made up for it. No matter how many times Sokka had seen Zuko’s face light up with laughter and his eyes sparkle with mirth, the sight and sound of Zuko’s joy always sparked a feeling of indescribable awe in Sokka.

Like he was bearing witness to something meant to be treasured and held dear to his heart.

Zuko’s joy was the moment right when the clouds began to part after a storm. The way the light would beam down in brilliant rays of light, bathing the world in a warm hazy glow. It was the exhilaration of racing down a snowbank on an otter penguin. The feeling of laying in bed while a soft lazy morning light drifting through the blinds, the blankets warm and comfortable in a way that they never could manage at any other time of the day. Like a poem whispered in the wind, like a promise of some secret truth, as the world turned to dusk and the city lights began to flicker on, not together all at once, but slowly.

To glimpse his elation at something, anything really, was absolution. 

When he had first seen Zuko resplendent with nothing more than a smile gracing his lips and a twinkle of ease and contentment dancing in his eyes, Sokka had felt weightless.

Now the weightlessness had settled, and Zuko’s joy left Sokka grounded by it.

They were still laughing when the two of them got into the car they had been exiled to, before Zuko’s elation died down and he went serious, “I know me not telling you about… All of this, I know that upset you, and I should have told you. I trusted you enough that telling you actually would have been allowed. Just like how Azula trusted Mai and Ty Lee enough that she was allowed to tell them who she was… But I didn’t because I was scared. Because if you knew who I was then you would know about my father. And even without knowing half of what he did, I hear the way people talk about him like he was some kind of monster. Which they’re right, he was one, and it is better for everyone that Ozai is dead.”  
  
Sokka didn’t say anything, as he watched Zuko pause to gather himself back together, before finishing, “I was afraid if I told you, then you would see me as Ozai’s son. Not that he ever knew I was a guy because I didn’t come out to anyone until after the Royal Civil War actually started… But I am sorry I didn’t tell you. I just didn’t want you to hate me.”

“Zuko, I would never in a million years hate you because of who your dad was,” Sokka assured his boyfriend. “I love you too much for that.”

Zuko gave him a soft smile, before suddenly asking, “How tinted are the windows?”

“What?” Sokka asked, his confusion only doubling when Jee unbuckled and then got out of the driver’s seat and closed the door behind him.

“Are they dark enough that people can’t see inside?”

“Yeah, but we can still see out them. So they are still within legal-” Sokka began, but he trailed off when Zuko unbuckled his own seat belt and climbed into Sokka’s lap, so he was straddling it.

And then Zuko made Sokka melt.

“I love you too, Sokka, and if I don’t kiss your stupidly handsome face right now, I am going to die.”

Sokka’s face split into a wide grin, as he asked, “Is that the only thing you want?”

“No, I want you to fuck me, but I’m still recovering from surgery and I highly doubt this car is soundproof.” Zuko retorted before crashing their lips together.

Zuko’s lips tasted like jasmine tea and honey, and by the time Jee was finally allowed back in the car, Zuko had his gorgeous long hair down from the top knot he had been wearing it in.

Jee made eye contact with Sokka in the rearview mirror, with a warning look, and Sokka gave him a sheepish smile in return.

“We need to go to the mall, so I can get Zuko a scarf and a hat so he doesn’t get cold while I’m showing him the city,” Sokka said with an innocent smile that did nothing to absolve him of marking up the Prince of the Fire Nation’s neck.

Zuko both tried and failed to hide his blushing, adding, “Uh yeah, we need to go look for wherever Hawky took Sokka’s scarf off to.”

“Sure you do.”

“Actually, Hawky likes to stash my stuff on top of a statue of Kuruk that is in the park,” Sokka explained, liking the idea of walking through the park with Zuko.

* * *

The hat that Sokka had got for him was big enough that Zuko had been able to pull it down over his scar, and after they had retrieved Sokka’s own scarf from the statue, Sokka had insisted that it would look better on Zuko.

So after trading scarves, the two of them began wandering through the park.

Though soon enough, Sokka asked a question Zuko had figured he would.

“So if your tattoo already colored, I don’t understand how you managed to hide that during your pretend search.”

Zuko just parroted off the words that Iroh had said to everyone so far to avoid anyone checking the prince’s own mark when they did have to do a soulmate test. (Though thankfully most of the world leaders and their families already had soul mark tattoos that had been touched by their soulmates.)

“I just had surgery and we don’t want to risk infection more than we already are due to traveling to the four Air Temples, both Water Tribes, and the Earth Kingdom. And as both tattoos would color, then only one needs to be checked for confirmation.”

Sokka gave an approving nod, saying, “That is actually pretty smart. It is a good thing that it doesn’t have to be skin on skin contact or you wouldn’t have been able to pull that off.”

“If it was skin on skin contact, then my mark wouldn’t have colored. Mine is on my back.”

Sokka stopped walking and asked, “Is the whole soulmate search the reason that you didn’t seem to like it when people would try to touch you?”  
  


“Yeah, I wasn’t supposed to let my tattoo color until the search. When we realized it had colored, I was actually grateful because that meant that I wasn’t going to be the cause of an international incident.” Zuko admitted, blushing. “I figured if it got out that I had met my soulmate and didn’t realize it, well… That would be less of a scandal than if I, say, found out the Earth King was my soulmate and rejected him.”

“You were going to actually reject your soulmate if you had known who they were?” Sokka sputtered.

Zuko nodded, adding, “We said we were going to be together, soulmates be damned. And I meant that. Plus, not looking for them when your soul mark has colored is basically the same thing, so you’ve already rejected yours.”

“I didn’t think about it that way… But if I had found them, I probably would have rejected them.” Sokka admitted, before asking, “If your plan had been to reject your soulmate then why were you even going to do the search?”

They had started walking again by the time that Zuko finally answered the question, “It was less likely that anyone during the international part of the search would have been my soulmate, and publicly rejecting even the concept of a world leader or someone in their family being my soulmate would have been a lot worse than finding out one of those people were and rejecting just one person. So it was a calculated risk as Uncle Jee put it when I talked to him about doing that.”

“And if my soulmate was in the Fire Nation, we could quietly pay them off to not say anything. They could have had anything they wanted except for me. Though once I get back to the Fire Nation, I have to do a news interview and from that time until the domestic search is over we are going to have to hide the fact we are together.”

This was the part that Zuko knew wouldn’t go over well.

“How long is the domestic search going to take, Zuko?” There was hurt in Sokka’s voice. Hurt that Zuko had put there, and he hated himself for hurting Sokka.

“Let’s sit down,” Zuko said, spotting a nearby bench.

Sokka was standing still again.

“Sokka… My people, if the first thing I say to them is that I am unwilling to even pretend to look for my soulmate among them when I become Fire Lord they will despise me. They will despise my uncle if he doesn’t force me to even consider them. There would be outrage… We are still repairing the damage that the Royal Civil War did. Yes, my uncle won, but it cost lives. And if my people think we don’t care enough about them to do the domestic search, they will think that we did not value those who gave up their lives to put him on the throne…”

Zuko went to sit down on the bench, not bothering to see if Sokka would follow him, to sit down and then hid his face in his hands.

“People already died because of me, Sokka. My mother and Lu Ten died because of me.”

And though Sokka had followed him to the bench, he froze where he stood.

* * *

He did not hear that right.

He couldn’t have.

“You don’t mean that, Zuko. None of that was your fault.”

But Zuko shook his head and let out a choked sob into his hands before he began to tremble with silent tears.

He said it, whispered it really, almost too quiet for Sokka to hear.

“That war was my fault…”

But before Sokka could ask what that even meant, Jee stormed over, from where he had been standing guard, and shoved Sokka away from Zuko growling, “Why the fuck is my kid crying!”

“I didn’t- Why does he think the war was his fault?” Sokka asked, confused.

The rage vanished, and Jee knelt down in front of Zuko before putting a gentle hand on his nephew’s shoulder, and soothed, “Kiddo, that wasn’t your fault. None of that was your fault. I don’t know how many more times I have to tell you that before it sinks in, but I will keep saying it until it finally does. Okay?”

“If I hadn’t spoken out against him-” Zuko started, but Jee stopped him.

“If you hadn’t even more people would have died, Zuko. The war was not your fault. The war was Ozai’s fault, not yours.”

“Okay, this sounds like a conversation that shouldn’t be had in a public park,” Sokka stated, unsure what was going on. But he needed to get Zuko out of the public eye because Sokka was sure that this was bad bad.

A lot of people liked to make theories about why overnight the Fire Nation had erupted into a civil war. Fuck, even Sokka had come up with his own wild and outlandish theories.

He remembered waking up in the middle of the night to go use the bathroom and overhearing his dad on the phone in a hushed panicked tone.

Sokka had looked at the door to the bathroom and the one to his dads’ bedroom and his natural curiosity had won out. So he had tip-toed over to the door and stuck his ear to it to eavesdrop.

“General Kuruk, what do you mean Caldera City is on fire?”

There was a pause.

“Well, then have someone get ahold of Iroh! If anyone is going to know what is going on and actually tell us, he will!” His dad whisper shouted.

“Bato, Kuruk says no one in the White Lotus has been able to make contact with Iroh since the news broke. I am going to go get the car started. You need to wake up Kanna and let her know there is an emergency and that we don’t know when we will be back. After that, meet me in the car.”

Hearing that, Sokka rushed back to his bedroom and threw himself back into bed, confused and troubled by what he had heard. Ever since Sister Yangchen had become the head of the Air Nomads, the world had been at peace.

But the capital of the Fire Nation was on fire that night, and the city burned for the next three years.

Sokka’s dads never did learn he had eavesdropped, but when the world woke up the next day, no one had an answer to why any of it had happened. Not even the Fire Nation.

And now it seemed that Sokka was going to find out the biggest mystery of the decade, and frankly, he wished he wasn’t.

Thankfully Jee agreed with him that a public park was really not the best place for this conversation.

“Sokka’s right, kiddo, let's go back to the car, we can talk about this there.”

Zuko finally seemed to get ahold of himself, before taking a few deep breaths and after rubbing at his face with his coat sleeve got up off the bench.

He didn’t look exactly like he had calmed down, but Zuko seemed to be down crying.

They walked quietly back to the car, before getting in.

“Uncle Iroh overthrew Ozai because of me.” Zuko sighed tiredly, as Jee started the car.

He seemed to disappear inside himself, as he began to explain, “Uncle was in Ba Sing Se when it happened. I’d found out my father was planning an attack on the Earth Kingdom. I didn’t agree with him and I told him. So he burned my face. When Uncle returned to the palace, he found out what Ozai had done. And you can guess what happened next…”

Sokka was beyond horrified, but Zuko didn’t stop there.

“When Jee came to get me and Azula the palace had already turned into a war zone, but he was able to get us out of the palace… Lu Ten was meant to bring our mother to meet us at the Western Air Temple, but they didn’t make it…”

Sokka didn’t know what to say to make things right for Zuko, so instead, he wrapped his arms around Zuko and just held him and pressed a kiss to his scalp.

But Ozai was already dead. Iroh had seen to that personally.


	6. College AU///5+1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I had a different plan for this chapter at first but I had a lot of pain today so I had to be stoned while writing this. So It ended up being porn. I will give a blurb in the author's note of the next chapter with the only plot-relevant info.

One

The doorbell rang mere moments after Sokka had turned the stove off and begun to ladle the stew he’d made into a pair of bowls. A text quickly following, when his phone chimed from where it sat on the countertop.

**Hotman:** Im outside

Sokka smiled at the message before going to open the door to let Zuko in.

He hadn’t seen Zuko in person since his boyfriend had gone back to the Fire Nation. Sure once Zuko had gotten a new phone, they had gone back to texting pretty much nonstop, but Sokka missed being in the same room with Zuko.

That and he wanted to see if Zuko had liked the gift he had sent Zuko because Zuko hadn’t been able to open it until he was getting on the plane to go back to Ba Sing Se.

And when he opened the door, Zuko’s smiling face was finally in front of him again, a large fluffy arctic fox hair eyepatch covering his scar.

“You’re wearing the eyepatch! Do you like it- Is it warm enough that the cold isn’t making your scar hurt?” Sokka couldn’t help but babble as he gave his boyfriend an excited bear hug, that Zuko seems more than happy to return.

Zuko laughed, “Yes, I love it, but you didn’t have to.”

“What? And let you be in pain? I don’t think so.” Sokka replied as he finally released Zuko to let him inside, leaving the snowy streets of Ba Sing Se outside.

Zuko looked happy.

He would give anything to make sure Zuko stayed that way.

“I love you,” Zuko said, kissing Sokka on the cheek before walking through the foyer and into the kitchen. “You said you were making stew, and I’m hungry.”

Sokka happy, followed behind, asking, “Hey, what time is your appointment with Sister Yangchen?”

“We had it on the plane, so she could help out at the shelter a little longer with Suki’s moms today,” Zuko answered before picking up one of the bowls of stew to begin eating.

The moan he gave after that first spoonful made Sokka hungry for something that wasn’t stew, but Suki was still getting ready to go help her moms at the homeless shelter that the woman ran. So instead of feeding that, he grabbed his own bowl and led Zuko into the living room.

“So, do you know what movie you want to watch?”

Zuko’s grin as he responded, “That’s right! It’s my week. Well, in that case, we have to watch the worst movie of all time.”

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Suki said as she walked into the living room to grab her purse off of the coffee table. “Sokka told me you like watching bad movies whenever you’re really happy. Should I expect Sokka to be singing songs from a terrible movie adaptation of one of your favorite musicals or the woes of bad writing?”

“Bad writing,” Zuko snickered evilly. “I didn’t say we would be watching something from the Ember Island Players.”

Sokka sank down onto the plush couch, making sure not to spill any of the stew, knowing Toph would hate it if she got back from visiting her parents and her favorite sofa smelled like stewed rabaroo meat. (Even if she did demand he make rabaroo stew at least twice a week.)

“So I take it therapy went well?” Soka asked.

Zuko nodded as he sat down next to him, saying, “We had a breakthrough, but I’m also just happy to be home.”

The warm, happy feeling that came anytime Zuko called him home never got old.

“How is it you two are somehow sappier than Ty Lee?” Suki giggled before she tapped out a quick text and left the room to go to the garage.

“Alright, Hotman, let’s see which movie you plan to torture me with today,” Sokka teased playfully before pressing a kiss to the cheek not covered by the eyepatch.

Zuko groaned, “That isn’t a thing in the Fire Nation. This Kuzon was pulling Aang’s leg with that nonsense.” before he slipped the eyepatch off and set it on the table.

“Hmm…” Sokka sighed happily, eating another spoonful of soup and stating, “Oh, I don’t know, I think it fits. You are a hot man, after all.”

Zuko snorted hard enough that some stew ended up on the couch anyway, before trying and failing to not burst into a fit of giggles.

Sokka set his stew on the coffee table when he heard the garage door open, signaling that Suki was finally leaving and that they were now alone.

“Come here,” Sokka breathed into Zuko’s good ear, taking his boyfriend’s bowl and placing it next to his own. “I want to hold you in my arms like an egg in a dog’s mouth.”

Zuko shoved him away, squealing with laughter, and Sokka couldn’t help but keep going at the sight of pure joy it had gotten.

“Gently, cause your ass is fine china!”

“That has to be the weirdest pickup line I have ever heard!”

Sokka hummed gently against his boyfriend’s lips, “But you love weird pick-up lines, so I am only being a good boyfriend.”

“I don’t know how you can say them with a straight face,” Zuko said once he finally caught his breath from almost dying of laughter.

“It helps that I’m hungry,” Sokka whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of Zuko’s neck. “And I’m not talking about food.”

The sharp intake of breath and the quickening of the pulse against his lips, as Zuko leaned into his touch, told Sokka he was on the right track if he wanted to turn this into a bit of a Netflix and Chill moment.

He ran his right hand up Zuko’s thigh, murmuring, “I know I can’t take you out, but I sure would like to eat you out, baby boy.”

“ _ Fuuuuck,  _ Sokka-” Zuko groaned, amusement and arousal mixing together in his voice.

“Mhmm…,” Sokka hummed as he braced himself with his left arm to lean further into Zuko. “But only if you want me to, sweetheart.”

Zuko let out a soft whimper, “Fuck,  _ Sokka, please, _ yes, please.”

Permission given, he slipped a hand into Zuko’s sweatpants to rub at his entrance finding it already damp with arousal.

“I tend to get pretty chatty, so are there any words I should be using instead?” Sokka asked as he dipped the tips of his fingers inside.

Zuko reached down and grabbed Sokka’s hand, pressing his fingers deeper, moaning, “Where you are right now is, au-uh, that’s- that’s my entrance, I wouldn’t use any female coded language for it.”

Sokka pumped his fingers inside of Zuko’s entrance slowly a few more times before he slipped them out to run them up until they rubbed against his next sexy time vocab question.

“And this?” Sokka asked, using a little more pressure, “What do I call this?”

“Fuck!” Zuko groaned, throwing his head back, bucking his “fuck” further into Sokka’s hand.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard someone call it that,” Sokka mused as he pressed his fingers against it, making Zuko let out a gasp.

“If you keep teasing me like this, you better have a condom,” Zuko growled, writhing under Sokka’s touch.

“And why is that, baby boy?”

The pet name elicited another groan of pleasure from Zuko, as Zuko snapped, “Because I’m going to need you to put your  _ fuck _ in me at this rate-”

“I leave for five minutes!?”

Sokka and Zuko froze.

Zuko’s eyes glanced over Sokka’s shoulder towards where Suki’s shriek had come from.

And then he threw Sokka under the bus saying, “It was Sokka’s idea?”

Apparently, Suki had forgotten to grab the pot of stew Sokka had made for her to take to the shelter.

Two

Whenever Jet threw a party, it wasn’t uncommon to find a couple hooking up in one of the bedrooms, but Zuko had pulled Sokka into the bathroom with him, apparently deciding they were going to be  _ that couple _ at the party.

And frankly? Sokka was totally fine with that.

Zuko was panting into his mouth, racing to get Sokka’s flannel off him, while Sokka himself was struggling with Zuko’s jeans, trying to get them open.

A moment later, Sokka finally succeeded and yanked the jeans down around Zuko’s thigh and-

“You planned this out, didn’t you, baby,” Sokka chuckled. “Is that why you made us only get virgin drinks?”

“Didn’t want to get drunk and forget the condom,” Zuko answered seriously, as he released Sokkka’s half-open shirt to grab the aforementioned condom out of his jacket pocket.

Sokka groaned as he lifted Zuko up and sat his bare ass on the bathroom counter, “Smart.”

“I made that mistake once at my old school, but I got lucky nothing came from it.” Zuko agreed while Sokka worked open his own pants.

A moment later, Sokka had his cock out, and Zuko was handing him the condom.

“If I wasn’t worried about getting pregnant, I would let you cum in me.”

Sokka felt his brain short circuit at that, but before he could say anything, someone was pounding on the door shouting, “Dude, some of us need to take a shit!”

As much as they wanted to ignore the guy, they weren’t going to be that  _ that couple _ .

Three

They were in Zuko’s bedroom, at his actual house in Ba Sing Se, instead of the one Sokka had just thought was Zuko’s place, and when Zuko had offered to blow him…

Well, Sokka was more than happy to say yes.

Which was why he had the prince of the Fire Nation on his knees while Sokka sat on the edge of the bed, both trying and failing to form any semblance of coherent thought beyond the endless stream of filth coming out of his mouth.

What Zuko lacked in skill, he more than made up for in enthusiasm.

His hands fisted in Zuko’s hair, groaning, “It’s my turn to go down on you next, baby. Gonna have you screaming my name until-“

Zuko pulled off him with a wet pop.

“Did I say something I-“ Sokka started, worried he’d said something that made Zuko uncomfortable.

But Zuko blurted out, “I want you to cum on my face? Okay?” And then he was swallowing Sokka back down.

An unintelligent moan spilled out of Sokka instead of whatever he had been planning to say next.

His brain was too far gone to even stop and appreciate the sight of Zuko’s lips stretched around his cock or the fact that Zuko was moaning as well.

Though he did catch the sight of Zuko’s free hand in his sweatpants, and  _ shit! _

Sokka jerked Zuko’s perfect mouth off him and started stroking himself. Zuko pleasuring himself well he watched.

“Open your mouth, baby boy,” Sokka ordered, and Zuko let his mouth drop open as his burning gold eyes fluttered shut.

He tipped over the precipice at the worst moment.

The door opened, and Jee screamed.

Zuko’s eyes flashed open in horror.

And Sokka? Sokka got jizz in Zuko’s eye.

He was made to leave for the day.

Four

Thankfully when spring break came, neither of them had to go back home.

Which is how they found themselves on a camping trip with their friends. And after a long day of setting up camp, going on a hike, and teaching Toph how to swim, they settled down in their tents for the night.

But Zuko kept shifting around restlessly in his sleeping bag.

Finally, Sokka sighed and asked, “You want to get in with me? My bag is kind of roomy.”

“I’m horny,” Was Zuko’s answer.

“Hi Horny, I’m dad,” was Sokka’s answer.

Zuko’s mischievous grin as he shot back, “Oh? Is that so…  _ Daddy? _ ”

Sokka groaned, “Get over here. But please never call me that again.”

Zuko silently slipped out of his sleeping bag, but instead of getting in Sokka’s bag, he started digging through his backpack.

“You brought condoms?” Sokka whispered at his boyfriend.   
  


Zuko huffed, “Yeah, each time we’ve tried to hook up, someone always interrupts us. So I started carrying some everywhere, just in case the chance came up. And while I love your fingers in me- Fuck…”

“What?”

“I left the box at home.”

Sokka covered his face with his hands and sighed, “I have some in my bag. In the front pocket.”

A few minutes later, Zuko plopped a condom down next to Sokka’s head and then slipped into the bag with Sokka, his back pressed to Sokka’s chest. It turned out to be a good idea, seeing as the bag was far less roomy with the both of them in it.

Sokka slipped his hand down the front of the boxer shorts that Zuko had decided to wear to bed, and when he started getting Zuko even more worked up with his hands, Sokka liked the position even more.

Every time Zuko squirmed against him, his ass rubbed against Sokka’s growing arousal, and Zuko’s quiet panting and carefully Zuko's quiet panting and soft moans muffled by Zuko’s own hand helped to avoid alerting any of their friends what they were up to.

Once they were both worked up, Sokka went to grab the condom when something brushed up against their tent.

Sokka froze.

A few moments passed, and Zuko asked, “Why’d you stop?”

“I thought I heard something…”

Zuko hushed up and turned over in the bag, so his good ear was facing up, and he listened.

The thing brushed against their tent again, and this time Zuko heard it.

The two of them glanced at each other in the darkness and then to the zipper door of their tent, the mood more than killed.

“What was that?” Zuko whispered, worry coloring his voice.

They watched where they had heard it, at least until the thing leaped up on the other side of their tent and yelled, “RAAAAAAWR!!!”

In hindsight, they should have realized it was Toph’s voice and that she’d just been fucking with them, but in the moment, the two of them shrieked in terror.

A moment later, they had realized what had just happened, and Toph cackled at them before her shadow leaned down and picked her cane back up.

“Sokka, if you’re going to jerk off, be quieter next time.”

Zuko couldn’t help but burst out laughing as they both realized that while Zuko had remembered to keep quiet, Sokka hadn’t.

Five

Summer break had come round again, and it was the night before they would be flying their separate ways for the summer.

So fed up with being walked in on, Zuko told his bodyguards he was going to stay the night at Sokka’s. But they waited until it had been dark out and then drove off to a secluded dirt road that overlooked the city, hoping to get a moment alone without someone to interrupt them.

They moved from the front seat and into the back seat, where Sokka had a blanket and a sleeve of condoms. It was a little awkward, but they were able to manage well enough.

Zuko’s thighs were quivering around Sokka’s head as he finally got to eat his boyfriend out. And Zuko was pleading with Sokka for “more, more, more.”

And then a flashlight beam shined through the window.

The two of them jumped, and Zuko snatched the blanket that Sokka had back there to cover himself with.

A cop was standing outside and laughing at them.

Sokka and Zuko gave him sheepish smiles, and then the man gestured for Sokka to roll the window down.

When Sokka did, the cop finally got a better look at their faces, and he froze.

“Uh, Prince Zuko? You’ve got some missed messages from a Lt. Jee. It would be good if you called to let him know that you are okay. And uh… Maybe you two should get headed on home,” And then the officer awkwardly backed away and headed back to his cruiser, saying something into his walkie-talkie and then laughing a moment later.

He got into the cruiser, and he waited until Sokka and Zuko had returned to the front seats and then followed them back into town until they pulled back into Sokka’s garage.

It turned out Jee had popped into Sokka’s bedroom, wanting to remind Zuko what time they needed to be at the airport in the morning, but he had found an empty room.

Jee had tried to look for the two of them, but he hadn’t been able to find them and had panicked and asked the local cops to help him and the RGOs look for the pair.

\+ 1

Over the summer, they had managed to convince Zuko’s uncles that it would be a good idea if, when summer break was over, the two of them moved in together. Honestly, it was Jee who had been the one that they actually had to convince to allow it.

Iroh and Sokka’s dads said that it would be a good show of unity between their two nations.

When the break was over, they met up at the airport back in Ba Sing Se, and Sokka drove them to the apartment building they had been set up in. At first, they had been confused by it, but quickly they learned that their floor and the floors above and below them had been rented out to some of the RGOs that had come from the Fire Nation.

But it was late, so once they got inside of their new place and, after giving the apartment’s living space a brief glance, they headed off to find a bedroom and get some sleep.

They didn’t even bother to change out of their clothes.

But morning came soon enough, and when Sokka woke up, Zuko was stepping out of the ensuite bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

“Morning, sweetheart,” Sokka yawned with a smile.

Zuko smiled at him and held something up.

Sokka had to blink the sleep out of his eyes before the item came into focus, but when it did…

“Get over here, baby boy,” Sokka purred, sitting up.

Zuko set the condoms on the nightstand before pressing a kiss to his forehead and grimacing, “You stink. I’ll get started while you take a shower.

Sokka shot up out of bed and raced off to the bathroom to take the fastest shower of his life.

And when he walked back into the bedroom, he was greeted by the sight of his boyfriend sprawled out on the bed fully naked with his hand between his legs, moaning his name like it was a prayer.

Zuko smiled at him before becoming him over.

Sokka grabbed one of the condoms from the nightstand and asked, “Having fun, baby?”

“Yeah,” Zuko sighed wistfully as he moved to meet Sokka in a kiss.

Sokka ripped the foil packet open and made quick work of getting the condom on before asking, “So, how do you want it, baby boy?”

“I liked what we tried when camping. It was pretty fun before we were interrupted,” Zuko breathed into his ear before giving Sokka a few strokes and pulling him onto the bed.

He followed Zuko onto the bed and watched as his beautiful naked boyfriend laid back before rolling over onto his stomach, long dark hair cascading down his back.

Sokka raised Zuko’s hips up and leaned down to lick at Zuko’s entrance, drawing a happy moan from Zuko before rising to his knees behind his boyfriend to brush Zuko’s hair over one of his shoulders, deciding where best to start marking him up when…

Wait…

There was a dragon and wolf tattoo filled in with a light blue on Zuko’s back?

Zuko frowned when he saw Sokka freeze.

But Sokka was thinking back to a year ago when he had bumped into Zuko’s back with his own.

“Sokka?”

Sokka knew he should answer Zuko, but instead, he reached out to trace the edge of the tattoo. Confusion and shock were rushing through him.

“This- This is my tattoo…”

Zuko rolled away and onto his back.

He looked just as confused as Sokka felt, as he said, “No? Yours colored in last summer. Mine didn’t until-”

“Did you actually check your soul mark in that time period?” Sokka asked, interrupting Zuko.

“No, but no one touched my back, so I didn’t need to,” But he could see the wheels turning in Zuko’s head until, “Turn around, I want to see your tattoo.”

Sokka obliged, and when he heard Zuko start laughing, he looked over his shoulder at Zuko, baffled why he was laughing in a moment like this.

“I’m an idiot. I should have checked my mark when you asked me last year,” Zuko explained before adding, “It would have saved us a lot of trouble. I just thought I imagined that you’d bumped into me. And then when we were at that party, we were all over each other, but you didn’t touch my back that night, so I’d thought when you texted it couldn’t have been me.”

Sokka couldn’t help but start laughing himself before pointing out, “So you found out your mark had colored, and you only had the memory of one person touching your back, and you didn’t-”

But he could finish the sentence, dissolving into another fit of laughter.

When he finally caught his breath, he turned to face Zuko again and saw the fire in those eyes, as Zuko murmured, “You know how we said fuck soulmates? I really think we should try that.”

And Sokka?

Sokka did precisely that.


	7. Disability or Chronic Pain///Hurt/Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tw for more gun violence, Zhao, kidnapping, and a brief mention of the mutilation of a corpse. Also, Zhao misgenders and dead names Zuko. This is based on a nightmare I had a few months back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So last chapter Zuko and Sokka kept trying to hook up but got cock blocked. Finally, they move in together and when they go to have sex this time Sokka sees the soul mark on Zuko's back and the two of them realize they are soulmates.

Sokka would like to say that finding out that they were soulmates didn’t change their relationship, but it did.

One would think that finding out the person you were in love with had been your soulmate the whole time would be a good thing. The first day Sokka felt awkward about the subject, but he had gotten over it by the next day and tried to go back to normal.

They had agreed to wait until Zuko was ready to tell anyone, but they were already a month into the new semester and living together, and Zuko still wasn’t prepared.

If anything, Zuko seemed to be less ready, like he was pulling away from Sokka.

Zuko hadn’t slept in the same bed as Sokka since that first night.

Though they were publicly dating now, Zuko had been able to complete the pretend search for his soulmate over the summer.

Sokka was worried.

It was almost like… Did Zuko not want them to be soulmates?

He sighed, deciding that he would ask Zuko what was going on once he was done with classes for the day.

* * *

After that first day of knowing Sokka was his soulmate, reality had come crashing down.

He was actually dating his soulmate, and he’d fallen in love.

He should be happy about that. Ecstatic even, but all he felt was dread…

His parents had been soulmates, but they really shouldn’t have been.

His mom had told him how it had happened.

* * *

Ursa had lived her whole life in Hira’a, where she had grown up with her best friend Rin and his soulmate Ikem. The three of them had been inseparable, and if it hadn’t been for the empty flame tattoo on her hand, people would have thought that the three of them were soulmates.

She had loved them dearly, and there was more than just friendship between them. They hadn’t publicly admitted it, but she was with them.

Rin got sick, though. Real sick.

By the time they had convinced him to see a doctor, it was already too late.

Rin had cancer.

The doctor told them he only had a few months left.

They did their best to keep him comfortable, but there was nothing they could do to stop the inevitable, so Rin died.

The year that had followed was like a fog, and when they had healed enough to keep living, living for Rin, the Fire Lord and his son came to town.

It was for the royal family’s search, but Ursa didn’t go to meet the prince. She had long since decided that she would only love her Rin and Ikem, and they had loved her more than she could have ever asked.

The others who’d yet to met their soulmate went.

But just because the Fire Lord comes to town doesn’t mean the world comes to stand still, so she still had to go to work. (She had actually demanded to be allowed to go to work that day when Dr.Hirashi had tried to give her the day off.)

So she walked with Kya, her friend who she’d met during medical school, on their way to go to the hospital for their residency they were doing at the local children’s hospital.

Kya was laughing when she told her about some joke that one of her two soulmates had told her when it happened.

A member of the royal guard had walked past her, bumping into her by accident, and he didn’t stop walking.

Ursa had to stop, though, as he had bumped into her hard enough that the books she had been planning to bring the kids got knocked out of her arms and fell to the ground.

“Hey!” Kya shouted at the RGO, “Apologize to my friend!”

The RGO scoffed and ignored them, but the man who had been following behind the guard stopped and looked at them.

Ursa and Kya froze.

That was the Fire Lord’s son, Prince Ozai.

He frowned, but then he glanced to his left, and so Ursa followed his gaze to a news anchor and their cameraman before he turned to face her and Kya.

“I am so sorry for my guard’s rudeness. Let me help you with those.”

The three of them began to gather up the books when Ursa felt his hand brush against hers. She looked down at her soul mark, and her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach.

Her eyes had met with bright red fire.

She had hoped that the prince wouldn’t have noticed, but he did, and her life as she knew it was officially over when he cried out, “You’re my soulmate!”

Ursa wasn’t even allowed to say goodbye.

She had been spirited away to Caldera City and married without a care from anyone save for Ozai’s brother that she hadn’t wanted this.

So when her daughter asked her if she loved Ozai? Ursa told her the truth. She didn’t.

Ursa sat her little Kiyi down and told her, “Soulmates don’t always love each other.”

And she had told Kiyi her story.

* * *

Zuko had thought about his mother’s story more in the past month than he had in years.

He had thought about it when he first realized he’d met his soulmate, and he had been happy that he had avoided the same fate as his mom. He had already fallen in love, and his soul mark coloring had ended up being something he had used not to be forced into a marriage he didn’t want.

Uncle Iroh wouldn’t have made him go through with it, though, but Zuko hadn’t wanted to cause more trouble for his uncle. So he would have pretended that he was happy for Uncle Iroh’s sake.

But now? Now Zuko was confused.

He had never wanted to find his soulmate. Never wanted to end up with his soulmate…

And yet, he had stumbled his way into being in love with his soulmate anyways.

It was time to call Sister Yangchen again.

So he sat down in the living room of the home he now shared with Sokka, having ditched his classes for the day, before taking his hearing aid out to set down on the coffee table and made the call.

She answered by the third ring, “You missed your last appointment, Zuko.”

“I know… I found out who my soulmate is…”

She took a moment to respond before saying, “You are happy with Sokka, so I think that it would be healthier for you to-”

“Sokka is my soulmate,” Zuko interrupted.

And as always, Yangchen understood.

“This is about what happened with your mother, isn’t it.” The woman sighed before saying, “Has he treated you any different since the two of you found this out?”

“No, but-“

“Then you need to look at the situation for what it is. This is nothing like what happened to your mother, Zuko. She was taken away from the people she loved by her soulmate. You chose to love Sokka, and him turning out to be your soulmate doesn’t change that loving him was something you chose,” She explained. “Have you stopped loving him because he is your soulmate? Has this changed the way you love him?”

Zuko sighed and answered, “It didn’t change anything. I think it just scared me once I had the chance to process it.”

“And what was your reaction when you first found out?”

“I was really happy,” Zuko admitted with a small smile.

He finished the phone call and decided he needed to talk to Sokka.

So he grabbed his hearing aid and put it back in before going to take a walk while he waited for Sokka to get out of class.

Zuko wanted to have privacy with his thoughts, though, so he grabbed one of Sokka’s hoodies and flipped the hood up before grabbing a pair of sunglasses and leaving to go on the walk.

* * *

When Sokka got back to the apartment, it was quiet.

Zuko’s classes should have gotten out by now, but he wasn’t home. And Zuko hadn’t texted him about classes running late.

Sokka texted Zuko.

**Boomerang Guy:** You still out?

There was no answer.

There had only been one time Zuko hadn’t answered a message from Sokka.

Before Sokka had a chance to start worrying, there was a knock at the door, and Sokka went to answer it already, hoping that it was Zuko.

It wasn’t. It was Jee.

“We need to get Zuko back to the compound. Zhao just resurfaced, and he’s in the city.”

* * *

One moment Zuko had been in the park, and the next, he was waking up in a dark room, his head throbbing like he’d been hit.

_Shit._

He had to blink a few times before his vision cleared, and he could get a better idea of where he was.

The first thing he realized was that he was tied to a chair and the room was pitch dark, the only light coming from the gap underneath the door to the room.

He didn’t hear anyone else in the room, so he must be alone.

Zuko tested his bonds and found that his arms were held behind him with a set of handcuffs and that ropes held him to the chair.

He could work with that.

His legs were still free.

Zuko threw his weight to the side, but when he and the chair went crashing to the ground, the wood didn’t break. But a moment later, he brought his knees to his chest so the heels of his feet could rest against the seat of the chair, and then he kicked his legs down as hard as he could.

The chair’s base gave a loud “ **_crack,_ **” and it broke away from the back of the chair.

He winced at the way his hearing aid amplified the sound. And then Zuko rolled onto his front, and after an awkward shifting waddle, he was able to get up onto his knees and then up onto his feet. He wriggled his arms and managed to get the roped and chair back to slip down far enough that he was able to slip out of the ropes, and the chair back clattered against the floor.

Before he could step towards the door, it flew open, and someone switched on the light.

Zuko didn’t wait for his vision to clear up before he rammed into the man standing in the doorway, and he found himself standing in a warehouse, face to face with at least three dozen New Ozai Society gunmen.

Zuko froze.

Then he heard laughing, and he saw none other than Zhao himself stepping out from the crowd.

“Well, well, I guess I should have realized you would _run away_ again,” The bastard sneered at him. “I mean, that’s all you’re good at doing. You ran away when my men tried to take you before your introduction to the world, and you ran away the night I killed that stupidly brave cushion of yours, Princess. But he only bought your mother a few more moments before I shot her dead where she stood.”

“ ** _YOU KILLED THEM!?!_ ** ” Zuko snarled, before lunging forward, only for the man he’d barreled into to escape the room to grab him around the middle. “ **_I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!_ **”

“No, I don’t think you will,” Zhao mused as Zuko thrashed about trying to free himself.

Zuko stopped struggling, rage clouding his mind, as he spat, “And why not!”

Zhao’s smile, as he pointed his gun at Zuko, was stretched from ear to ear as he shrugged, “Because you won’t live long enough to try.”

And then he pulled the trigger.

Everything seemed to slow down as pain shot through Zuko’s left ear, his hearing aid making the gunshot louder than it was.

But then the man holding him in place let go in shock.

Zuko ducked.

The man fell back and didn’t get up.

There was another gunshot, and Zuko didn’t have to dodge this time.

He screamed as pain lit up his leg, and he crashed to the ground.

Zhao strode over to where Zuko lay curled in on himself, and he sighed, “Your stupid uncle is the one who cost me my promotion, Princess Kiyi. Do you really think I would kill you if I didn’t think he would get to see the life leaving your eyes?”

Zuko couldn’t help the terror that he’d been trying to push down.

It wasn’t going to be a quick death. And this bastard was going to be fucking dead naming him the whole time.

“It’s time to start filming, men.”

* * *

“What do you mean Zuko isn’t home.”

Jee had never sounded more serious in all the time that Sokka had known the man, and it scarred Sokka.

“I just got home, and he wasn’t here. I tried to text him, but he didn’t answer,” Sokka answered, officially panicking.

“Shit,” Jee murmured before he turned and went to bang on the door across the hall from Sokka’s apartment.

Kenzo was the one to open the door.

“Zuko’s missing. Pull up the tracking information,” And then he had his phone out and was racing down the hall to the elevator.

Sokka’s dads were going to kill him for what he was about to do, but he went with Jee.

Jee glanced at him but said nothing to him, instead choosing to answer whoever it was that he called and began to explain what was happening.

A text came in on Jee’s phone while they were in the elevator, and he swore.

“What? Where is Zuko?” Sokka pleaded.

Jee grimaced and answered, “His phone and hearing aid are in two different parts of the city. He’s been kidnapped. The tracker in his hearing aid says he is somewhere near the docks.”

He looked at Sokka for a thoughtful moment and then asked, “Sokka, how’s your aim with a gun?”

* * *

The cold of the table didn’t even register to Zuko.

He had fought like hell trying to get away from Zhao’s men, but there had just been too many of them, and he had a bullet in his leg, and he was pretty sure the gunshot had ruptured his eardrum.

If he survived this, he was going to have to get his hearing aid adjusted again.

But right now, he just wished Zhao would stop laughing at his soul mark. He wanted Zhao to shut up. Zhao had taken one look at it and just known his soulmate had to be Sokka.

“I think I know where to start,” Zhao crooned, the tip of his knife tracing up Zuko’s naked back and coming to rest at his mark.

Zuko shut his eyes. If he didn’t react, then maybe Zhao would start somewhere else. Anywhere else.

“Did your uncle ever tell you about the little present I sent him?” Zhao mussed as the tip of the blade left his skin.

Zuko didn’t answer.

Zhao, however, continued speaking though, walking around to where Zuko’s head was strapped down, and then he squatted down to look him in the eyes, tapping Zuko’s forehead with the knife, “I sent him his son’s soul mark that I’d cut from his corpse.”

Uncle never told Zuko about that. But it went a long way to explain why when Zuko had returned to the palace, he was never without guards.

Zuko spat in Zhao’s face.

Zhao froze, and then he looked mad.

“Let’s get started.”

Zhao got to his feet and then circled back around out of Zuko’s line of sight.

But Zuko didn’t have to wonder very long where the knife was.

It tore into his back, and Zuko screamed.

* * *

There was no clear indication of which of the warehouses on the docks Zuko was in. And Sokka couldn’t banish the fear that they would be too late from his mind.

At least there wasn’t until they heard the screaming.

The gun felt heavy in his hands as they went running.

When they burst inside, there was a fraction of a second, where Zhao and his men froze.

But then Jee and his soldiers opened fire.

Sokka scanned the room, and when his eyes found Zuko, he also found Zhao.

Zhao had a knife in Zuko’s back.

Sokka didn’t think. He just aimed and pulled the trigger.

Zhao slumped over dead, and Sokka dropped the gun.

He ran to Zuko’s side and saw the blood.

And for the only time in his life, he was happy to hear Zuko crying.

Zuko was still alive.

There was a knife in his back, but Zuko was still alive. And Sokka hadn’t lost him.

“Hey, baby, I’m here. You’re okay now,” Sokka cried in relief as he set to work undoing the straps that held his heart down.

The moment Zuko had a free arm, he was ripping his hearing aid, a trickle of blood splattering onto the table.

Sokka realized that the warehouse was silent now. And when he looked away from Zuko, he saw Jee stumbling over to them, as the men they had brought with them shot the men who decided to drop their guns and surrender.

“Where is Zhao.”

There was fury on Jee’s face.

Sokka glanced down at the man he’d killed. Brain matter splattered on the ground next to what was left of his skull, and Sokka thought he might get sick.

He turned back to Zuko and helped him down off from the table, but when Zuko’s leg gave out, Sokka caught him.

“Zuko needs a hospital.”

Jee stopped when he caught sight of Zuko.

And then he ordered, “Kenzo, Lee, get the prince to the hospital.”

Then he turned his gun to the dead body next to Sokka on the ground and fired three shots into what had remained of Zhao’s face.

“I’m sorry.”

Sokka looked at Zuko, confused.

“I-I you shouldn’t have had to-”

But Sokka stopped Zuko before he could blame even more bloodshed on himself, soothing, “I shot him, not you. This is not your fault.”

“I wanted to gather my thoughts, so I went for a walk alone,” Zuko groaned in pain as Sokka all but carried him from the warehouse and to the van.

Of all times for Zuko to decide to open up, of course, he would choose now.

“Zuko, let’s wait until you aren’t bleeding,” Sokka sighed, but then Zuko went heavy against his side and stopped trying to explain.

He’d passed out.

Sokka adjusted his grip on Zuko, so he carried him bridal style and hurried the rest of the way to the van.

* * *

When Zuko next woke up, he was in a hospital bed. Which well not great; it was an improvement on where he woke up last time.

His head felt foggy, but seeing as his back wasn’t burning in pain anymore, it didn’t take him any significant effort to realize that his doctors had given him something for the pain.

Someone was holding his hand and saying something.

Zuko turned his head, the pillowcase’s soft fabric cool against his skin, and Sokka’s face came into view. His lips were moving, but Zuko couldn’t hear him.

His good ear was pressed against the pillow.

_Shit._ He’d lost even more hearing in his left ear.

He squeezed Sokka’s hand twice.

Blue eyes turned to face him, and Zuko smiled.

Sokka let go of his hand and signed, “Morning. Are you okay?”

“I think I lost more hearing, but yeah, I’m okay… Thank you,” Zuko answered before trying to sit up, but Sokka shook his head and then handed him the remote for the bed.

And once Zuko had used the remote to sit the bed up, Sokka moved to sit on the side of the bed, so Zuko didn’t have to choose between seeing or hearing him.

Now that he was sat up, he saw that the person Sokka had been talking to was Dr. Minyu.

“I was just telling Sokka about your care plan for when you go home, but now that you’re up, I think I will give the two of you some private time. I’ll go take a lunch break, and when I get back, I’ll finish going over them,” The doctor said with a smile before stepping out of the room, closing the door behind them.

“How did you find me?” Zuko asked.

Sokka looked sheepish before answering, “Jee put a tracking device in your hearing aid after we snuck off trying to hook up in my truck last semester.”

“Makes sense. We really worried him that night…” Zuko chuckled before asking, “Did he… Did Zhao… My mark.”

“You still have your soul mark, but the skin around it is going to scar. The doctors had to stitch you back up, though.”

Zuko felt relief. It would have been cruel and unnecessary irony that the day he decided he was okay with his soul mark belonging to Sokka ended up being the same day he lost the soul mark.

He still needed to explain himself.

And so he did. Zuko told Sokka about his mother’s story and how finding out Sokka was his soulmate had frightened him, but that Sister Yangchen straightened him out and helped him realize that being soulmates changed nothing.

He still loved Sokka, regardless of whether or not they were soulmates.

Sokka looked relieved by the time Zuko had finished talking.

“I thought you had wanted to break up with me,” Sokka admitted.

Zuko knew that he had been hurting Sokka by pulling away, but he hadn’t honestly stopped to think about what it might have looked like to Sokka.

“Sorry, but you’re stuck with me.”

Sokka smiled at him softly before leaning in and kissing Zuko’s cheek before answering, “It’s like I said when we went ice skating. You’re the only one I want.”

“Uncle Iroh is probably already on his way here, so if you call your dads now, we can tell them about us being soulmates all at the same time.”

“Are you sure?” Sokka asked, cupping Zuko’s face with his hands, before pressing a kiss to his forehead. “I wouldn’t want to make you do something you don’t want to do.”

Zuko smiled at the man he loved completely and answered, “I want to.”


	8. Free Day///The Prince and the Fool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff fluff then smut smut

Zuko had been hoping that he would have ended up getting released from the hospital before his uncle and Sokka’s dads arrived in town.

But the doctors had wanted to keep him there for a week.

So it was in a hospital room, where he and Sokka revealed that they were soulmates, and they told their story.

And they told it over shitty hospital food and full hearts.

They told it in a room full of medical equipment and loved ones.

They told it together.

When they had finished, they couldn’t help but see how obvious it had been in retrospect, and if could have gone back and changed it, figured it out on day one… Well, they wouldn’t. Not when that would have meant Sokka blindly loving Zuko because he had grown up always seeing soulmates so deeply in love. And not when it would have meant Zuko holding back from allowing himself to love.

No, their story was what it needed to be. A story of two people who had chosen to love each other.

Though they did think it could have done without Zuko getting shot at.

And when Zuko looked at Sokka laughing with his family and laughing about how it had taken them so long to get here, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of right. That smile gave him something he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

It gave him peace.

And when Sokka turned that beaming contentment to face him, Zuko responded in kind with a bright smile of his own.

And while his life was by no means a fairy tale, he had ended up meeting his very own prince charming.

So maybe, well, he didn’t care much for soulmates. He did care for Sokka.

If he was going to be a fool in love, then he was glad that love was with Sokka.

Sokka made him happy. Truly happy.

And a glance at his uncles revealed they knew it as well.

He only wished his mom and cousin could be here to see it as well.

Soon enough, Uncle had to leave, back for the Fire Nation, but after a brief talk with Sokka, he seemed to feel comfortable to do so. And Sokka, when prompted about what they had talked about, had chuckled and said, “Just the standard break my kid’s heart, and I’ll break you talk.”

“Was it more uncomfortable than the one Jee gave you?”

Sokka kissed his forehead and answered, “Your uncles are equally terrifying and imaginative, baby boy.”

“And Azula?”

“Even more so.”

Zuko laughed, “Your sister was terrifying as well.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that for a second.”

Sokka’s dads had stayed for a few days longer than Uncle, but they to had to go home.

And so when Zuko was finally allowed to go home from the hospital, Uncle Jee was the one to drive them home.

Sokka helped Zuko to sit down on their couch before grabbing him a blanket and snacks.

“So? It’s your turn for movie night,” Sokka said as he sat down next to him.

Zuko smiled and grabbed the remote, answering, “Love Amongst the Dragons.”

“Which adaptation?”

“The terrible one.”

He was happy, and he liked kissing Sokka during terrible movies.

* * *

They had probably watched the entire Ember Island Players catalog of bad movies by the time Zuko had dozed off, the lights of a city at night drifting in through their living room window.

But Sokka didn’t have the heart to wake him.

Zuko looked so serene, laying on the couch with his head in Sokka’s lap.

His lips parted just barely, and one of his hands was holding one of Sokka’s own to his chest, as though Sokka himself had become a human security blanket. And the way his brow furled slightly in his sleep. An almost puzzled expression much like the one he would give Sokka during the day when he’d said something just odd enough that it didn’t sound too strange on the surface level, but there was just something left of normal about the sentence.

Zuko had never seemed to realize that he had been talking about Zuko during those moments.

Saying things like that, the sun had a blinding smile when the two of them had been walking hand and hand through the park at night.

It was a cute look on him, and Sokka would kiss it right off his face every single time. Wanting to keep the expression Zuko gave him just for himself.

Sokka looked out the window at the city that surrounded them and listened to the slow rhythmic breathing of Zuko and the rain the pattered against the window casting the outside into a blurry smear of abstract shape and light.

He’d killed someone to keep Zuko safe… Sokka wasn’t sure how he should feel about that.

In that moment, he hadn’t had any thoughts beyond keeping Zhao from hurting Zuko more than he already had. And he didn’t regret doing it, but that didn’t stop it from weighing on him. He knew he would do it again if he needed to, but he hoped that they would never find themselves in a situation like that one ever again.

Zuko squeezed his hand twice, and Sokka looked back down at the man resting in his lap.

“What time is it?”

“Time to get going to an actual bed, sweetheart.”

Zuko blinked bleary-eyed at Sokka for a few moments before replying, “Okay.”

And then he sat up from Sokka’s lap, yawning.

Sokka wasted no time scooping Zuko up into his arms and carrying the man into the hallway before asking, “Which room do you want to sleep in?”

“Yours, it has better lighting in the morning,” Was Zuko’s contented answer.

And so Sokka brought him there, before helping him into the bed, before going to fetch Zuko’s sleep shorts and one of the hoodies he’d stolen from Sokka.

When he came back with the clothes, he found Zuko already naked and sprawled out in their bed. Heat and fire burning in his eyes.

Sokka set the clothes on the dresser, sighing, “Babe, you just got home from the hospital.”

“What happened to wanting to hold me like an egg in a dog’s mouth?” Zuko sassed, spreading his legs and reaching down between his legs to play with himself.

Sokka couldn’t help be snort because Zuko was right. It was one of his weirder pickup lines.

But he relented and grabbed one of the condoms from the nightstand drawer, “Hips up.”

Zuko happily obeyed, and Sokka put a pillow under Zuko.

“Aren’t you wearing too many clothes?”

“Oh, you want a show, do you?” Sokka joked but made a show of slowly taking off his shirt and then pants as Zuko laughed all light and happy.

And then once that laughter had died back down and slipped back onto the bed to crawl up between Zuko’s legs, pressing a kiss to the side of his boyfriend’s leg.

“So, how do you want to do this?” Sokka asked.

Zuko reached out and grabbed Sokka’s free hand to place at his entrance, humming happily, “I want to be able to see your face.”

“I can make that work, baby boy,” Sokka agreed, rubbing his fingers against his boyfriend’s entrance. “Just let me know if you need me to stop.”

“I will.”

Sokka dipped his fingers into Zuko, and he relished the soft happy sigh his boyfriend let out.

And when Zuko reached up to pull him into a slow and soft kiss, Sokka pressed his fingers deeper—swallowing the sighs and gasps from Zuko’s lips like slow dripping ambrosia.

His fingers brushed up a particularly sensitive bunch of nerves and let out the single most beautiful sound that Sokka had ever heard. He thrust his fingers against it again, and the hand in his hair tightened.

“Do you like that, baby boy?” Sokka chuckled into Zuko’s good ear, gently rocking his fingers against it, enjoying the flush that spread across Zuko’s whole body.

“Sokka,” Zuko gasped, rolling his hips, trying to get him to go faster.

But Sokka held Zuko’s hips down with the hand that wasn’t currently buried knuckle deep in his boyfriend, “Un-uh, if you want to do this, it has to be slow and gentle.”

“Fuck you,” Zuko whined, his eyes blown wide and glaring up at Sokka in their dark room.

Sokka chuckled, “We can go buy you a strap tomorrow if you want to. I know I would be more than down for it.”

The high-pitched moan Zuko gave in response had Sokka making a mental note to look up the nearest sex shop first thing when he woke up in the morning, but for now, he just kept slowly working Zuko over. Alternating between pumping his fingers into Zuko and then rubbing at his dick. (Zuko had told him after their sexy vocab lesson to call it a dick.)

“Auh-uh, _Sokka_ ,” Zuko cried, his legs flexing desperately against Sokka’s sides.

“Mhmm… What is it, baby boy?” Sokka teased, curling his fingers inside of Zuko, just so.

Zuko threw his head back when Sokka sucked at the skin just below his good ear, whining, “I’m gonna- so close- more, _Sokka, please!_ ”

“Please, what?”

“I NEED YOU TO FUCK ME!” Zuko sobbed, looking like a thread about to snap.

And fuck if Sokka wasn’t already hard, he sure was now.

“Yeah-Yeah, okay, I-Fuck, okay, let me get the condom on,” Sokka groaned, pressing his forehead to Zuko’s before pulling back and grabbing the condom.

Zuko watched him with a desperately hungry look, and Sokka had to look away as he got the condom on. The sight of his boyfriend so unbelievably turned on too much for him to handle at the moment.

And when he did, he looked down at Zuko’s entrance, looking sore and swollen from all of his fingering.

Sokka felt a surge of pride at the sight.

He lined himself up, rubbing his cockhead against Zuko’s slick entrance and then pressing inside slowly.

* * *

Zuko moaned in relief, clinging to Sokka as he breached him.

Sokka felt so good inside him. His cock stretching him out as he finally bottomed out.

They stayed like that, Zuko adjusting to the girth inside him, mind completely blank. He just clung to his boyfriend, trying to catch his breath but finding it hard to with Sokka peppering his neck and shoulder with kisses and praise.

“So good for me, baby, so fucking good,” Sokka murmured into his skin between kisses that would leave his neck a mottled mess by the morning.

Zuko couldn’t help the needy whine that ripped its way from his throat at that praise. He felt like he was floating, like some sort of switch had been flipped in his brain.

“Do you have a praise kink, baby?” Sokka asked with a gentle rock of his hips, “You like it when I tell you what a good boy you are?”

Zuko turned his burning face away from Sokka, letting out another needy whine.

“Zuko, baby, look at me,” Sokka ordered, and Zuko did.

There was pure lust in those eyes, and Zuko felt his head swim with it as Sokka began to pull out before fucking into him again.

Zuko found himself transfixed by that stare.

“Let me know if I’m going too far, okay, baby boy.”

Zuko nodded, but Sokka stopped moving and repeated himself.

“Okay, okay, just please, _Sokka,_ don’t stop!” Zuko pleaded, “I’m so close- Auh!”

Sokka started moving inside him again, once he had begun blabbering mindlessly at Sokka.

“Good boy, keep looking at me. Need to see your beautiful face,” Sokka started back up, praising Zuko for his very existence.

He was close and full-on, sobbing Sokka’s name like it was the only thing keeping him sane.

“So pretty when you moan my name, baby boy. Such a good boy,” Sokka growled, picking up his pace, his thrusts turning erratic.

“ _So-Sokka, please!_ ”

And then Sokka groaned, his forehead pressed against Zuko’s, “Love you so much, baby boy.”

The thread snapped, and Zuko’s orgasm came crashing over him like a tidal wave. He could feel Sokka fucking him through it and then shout his name before pressing hard into him and going still.

Zuko felt like his heart was running a mile a minute as he tried to catch his breath.

And slowly, he came down from his release, floating in that blissful headspace he had fallen into.

“That-That was amazing,” Sokka hummed into his neck before slowly pulling out and chucking the condom in the trashcan by their bed. “I am going to grab you something to drink and a snack, okay, baby boy?”

Zuko gave a happy hum, and Sokka gave him a peck on the lips before getting up and leaving for a few moments. When he came back, he had the promised snacks and handed Zuko a bottle of Gatorade.

“Drink this, and then you can have the fruit.”

Zuko hummed in compliance as he sat up with Sokka’s help and sipped on the blue liquid until Sokka swapped it out for the dried mango slices.

And then they laid back down together in the bed, wrapped together like the lines of an abstract painting.

Zuko could feel himself coming down from the high as he mumbled, “I think you broke my brain.”

“That good?” Sokka chuckled, kissing his forehead.

“Yeah,” Zuko yawned. “And Sokka?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you to,” Zuko said with a smile.

Sokka smiled back at him and answered, “Look, the sun is beaming at me again.”

Zuko furrowed his brow puzzled, and Sokka laughed before kissing his scar. And Zuko soothed. Sokka said some weird shit sometimes.

“It’s the middle of the night, Sokka,” Zuko scoffed. “The sun isn’t in the sky.”

And Sokka, the cheesy dork that he was, answered, “I know, he’s in my bed.”

Zuko couldn’t help but snort before smacking Sokka on the arm and groaning, “Sokka, that pick-up line was somehow both ridiculously cheesy and awful at the same time.”

“What can I say?” Sokka cheered, kissing Zuko again. “You’re just too beautiful for me not to say it.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and kissed his boyfriend back.

“Are you doing okay, physically?” Sokka asked, rubbing circles into Zuko’s lower back.

Zuko glared at his boyfriend and answered, “Yes, Sokka, now shut up and let me go to sleep, or I am going to ride your stupid magical orgasm granting dick until you pass the fuck out.”

“Oooh, kinky!” Sokka restored with a big grin. “But maybe let’s wait until you are all the way better, baby boy.”

Zuko groaned and hid his face in Sokka’s shoulder.

“You are lucky I love you so much, or I would make you go sleep on the couch for saying that.”

But he couldn’t help breaking out into a fit of giggles that soon spread to his stupid boyfriend. Zuko couldn’t help it. Sokka just made him laugh.

Sokka made him happy and sue him. Zuko was in love.

* * *

Jee was in hell.

Why had he decided to move into the apartment right next door to his nephew. He didn’t want to hear stuff like that every night when he was trying to sleep.


End file.
